Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Control of Exports Bill 2021: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Dr. Eamonn Cahill:

I will take that question. Cybersecurity is very topical in terms of the implications for human rights in various quarters at present. A very important development on that front is that the new EU dual-use regulation came into effect on 9 September. It is a replacement of the previous 2009 regulation. Probably the single biggest advance in the EU regulation is a new focus on human rights and the potential for cyber surveillance technology to be exported to Europe and be used for repression and so forth. There are new additional measures in the regulations to control those exports. As that regulation has direct effect in all member states, the measures automatically apply in Ireland as well so we can inherit those powers automatically. Nonetheless, the EU regulation provides member states with discretion to go further and to introduce additional controls in their national legislation, and we are proposing to do that in the current legislation. Essentially, we want to take advantage of all discretion opportunities we are given by the EU regulations to provide additional control and to ensure we have a belt-and-braces approach on all fronts.

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