Dr. T.J. McIntyre:

Senator Conway asked about the level at which we should be regulating. He is entirely correct that this is primarily a matter for European and wider international co-operation. One of the problems in this debate is that people sometimes fail to recognise that it is not the role of an individual member state such as Ireland to regulate the Internet industry worldwide, notwithstanding the fact that some of the major companies have their headquarters here.

As a general rule under European law with respect to what are, for the most part, privacy matters, the competence of Ireland is generally limited to residents within Ireland or people with a significant connection with it. We saw this in the example of the digital safety commissioner, where the Law Reform Commission's proposals recognised that the commissioner's role in adjudicating on complaints would have to be limited to people resident in Ireland. It is, therefore, very misleading to say we have an opportunity to provide for a wider form of European legislation.