Ms Sabha Greene:

I thank the Chair and the committee for this opportunity to update them on the EU digital services package. As the package comprises of two proposals for new regulations, the Digital Markets Act, DMA, and the DSA, I am accompanied by my colleagues who have led the Irish position in those two negotiations; Mr, Eoin Cuddihy is on the DMA and Mr. Mark Dugdale is on the DSA.

The negotiations on the two proposals are advancing in Brussels. The Competitiveness Council adopted its general approach on each of the proposals at its meeting on 25 November last and Ireland supported those two general approaches. Meanwhile, the European Parliament adopted its amendments on the DMA last month and is scheduled to vote on its DSA amendments tomorrow. Trilogue negotiations on the DMA started last week, while those on the DSA are expected to begin shortly after the vote tomorrow, probably early next month. While the EU legislative process is moving fairly fast, it should be borne in mind that the text of both the DSA and the DMA is still evolving. Adoption of both proposals is a priority for the French Presidency and we expect to have final instruments in the course of this year.

The committee has asked us to provide information for an assessment of the potential interplay between the digital services package and the OSMR Bill. As the committee’s report on that Bill points out, the DSA is the most relevant of the two proposals in the EU package when it comes to scope and provisions. With the committee's permission, I will focus my remarks on that proposal, although we are here to answer questions on both.

The Council’s general approach maintains many features of the original Commission proposal, notably, the horizontal approach, whereby the DSA must be read in tandem with sectoral legislation, such as the AVMS directive. Clearly, therefore, there are provisions in sectoral EU legislation that are specific to those sectors. The DSA's text names many of those sectoral laws, but it is not an exhaustive list, and allows for additional sectoral rules in future. The text is still a general framework with a systemic approach requiring providers to have certain systems in place with respect to content. The general approach also maintains the country-of-origin principle, where the applicable law and regulators are those of the country in which a platform or service provider is established. This supports the smooth functioning of the Single Market. It also retains the focus on combating illegal content, on the principle that what is illegal offline should be illegal online. When it comes to moderation of harmful content, this continues to be the responsibility of intermediary services providers, but is subject to risk assessments for the very large online platforms.

One of the main changes introduced in the Council’s general approach last November is to the enforcement model. The text now extends the powers of the Commission for the supervision and enforcement of the regulation with respect to the very large online platforms and very large online service providers. National digital services co-ordinators, DSCs, retain their enforcement roles with respect to the smaller sized platforms and providers, and will still have a role in working with the Commission in respect of the very large operators.

The DSC will also work closely with sectoral regulators in Ireland and with its counterparts across the EU. As a result, there are new elements to reinforce the co-operation between national digital services co-ordinators and the Commission to ensure a robust and co-ordinated approach to enforcement.

This significant amendment was agreed just last November and, therefore, the full practical implications are still being assessed by the Commission and the member states. In Ireland’s case, this Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is preparing a regulatory impact analysis, RIA, to assess the best way to meet the obligation to designate and equip a DSC here. Given the number of operators established in Ireland, this will be a significant role. As I mentioned, the Parliament is adopting its own amendments this week to the DSA, and we are still examining those.

In conclusion, while many features of both the DMA and the DSA are clear now, they are still subject to the trilogue negotiations change is likely. Since the publication of the original proposals in late 2019, our Department has engaged with colleagues in all relevant Departments, including the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and that will continue as we each progress the EU regulations and the online safety and media regulation Bill.