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Bob Lyddon was commenting on a new survey released last week by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL). It suggested that Ireland – led by Taoiseach Micheal Martin, with former leader Leo Varadkar as his Tanaiste or deputy – was not applying Europe’s broad privacy laws to state-based tech companies. States such as Google and Facebook, which have their European headquarters in Dublin.

Since most of the US tech giants have their European headquarters in Ireland, responsibility for investigating many GDPR complaints fell to the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and Commissioner Helen Dixon.

However, the ICCL report suggests that 98% of the 164 major privacy breach complaints are currently unresolved by the country’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).

Spain, despite a much smaller budget than Ireland, produces ten times more draft decisions, the ICCL pointed out.

Johnny Ryan, senior researcher at the ICCL, said Ireland was at the “worst bottleneck” when it comes to the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governing data protection and privacy. privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area.

Mr. Lyddon, the founder of Lyddon Consulting Services Ltd, said Express.co.uk“Ireland’s slowdown on GDPR enforcement for its large Big Tech community is hardly surprising.

“While the tax advantages of Irish incorporation threaten to be eroded by the recent G-7 agreement on a minimum global corporate tax rate, there are many other areas where the Irish authorities can” add value” to their Big Tech customers.”

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Mr Lyddon said around 30% of Ireland’s economy and an even larger proportion of professional services and high-paying jobs come from foreign companies operating there under the heading “Foreign Direct Investment”, or FDI.

He added: “Ireland’s value proposition has always included taxation and also secrecy: private companies and limited liability companies – the preferred formats used by FDI clients – face disclosure requirements very minimal in Ireland. Why not add the non-application of the GDPR?

“Any erosion of this sector would have a catastrophic impact on the Irish economy, so some hypocrisy is to be expected in building GDPR enforcement capacity on the one hand, for public consumption and to impress European partners, then ensuring that cases against FDI clients stay in the inbound bin.

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Earlier this month, the DPC announced a record £192m (€225m) fine against WhatsApp Ireland for breaching the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – by far the largest ever. ever inflicted.

Speaking last week, DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said Express.co.uk“The DPC has officially called for proper peer review of statistics across the EU, but the statistics included in this report are inaccurate.

“The DPC has received over 1,200 cross-border complaints from other data protection authorities (DPAs) since the introduction of the GDPR in May 2018, of which over 600 have been resolved.

“In terms of technical resources, no DPA will have the in-house technical skills to do it all.

“As the DPC informed the ICCL last week, we have just completed an extensive procurement exercise and now have a framework worth over 2 million over the next few years, with five companies from which we can draw cutting-edge and niche knowledge to move forward.

Also speaking last week, a spokesperson for the European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, said: “We received the letter from the ICCL today. We will evaluate it carefully and respond to it.

“The GDPR has put in place an innovative governance system designed to ensure consistent and efficient enforcement of the rules through the “one-stop-shop”, where authorities cooperate in cross-border cases within the European Data Protection Board.

“As of June 2021, 715 Single Window related procedures have been initiated, of which 254 final decisions have been issued.”

The spokesperson explained: “The DPAs of Luxembourg and Ireland have just adopted two important decisions on the basis of cooperation and coherence mechanisms.

“We are aware, as highlighted in our GDPR 2020 report, that the effectiveness of cooperation between data protection authorities still needs to be improved.

“Several steps have recently been taken in this direction within the Council. The Commission continues to closely monitor cooperation in cross-border cases.”