Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank both Deputies. It is good to see Deputy Ring in the Chair.

For the information of the House, the country-of-origin principle means that the business activity is regulated in the EU by the member state in which it is established. That has been a core principle of the Single Market, which came into existence for 30 years ago. It goes back to the pre-digital economy. That continues to be something not just for the Single Market but also for the digital Single Market. Ireland strongly believes that companies will have the regulatory certainty they need to do their business. Citizens also need to have regulatory certainty. To uphold their rights, they need to know which national law applies and that these are dealing with that rather than having to deal with 27 different regulators.

We are strongly pushing our position regarding country of origin. It is a core aspect of the Single Market. We are continuing to engage and we have many like-minded partners at EU level in respect of this matter. We continue regular engagement, not just in Brussels but also here in Dublin, to ensure that our position on country of origin is strongly supported.

Regarding Deputy Ó Murchú's point, on a previous question we mentioned that we are now at full employment after 20 years of digital transformation. We will put the guidelines and guardrails in place to protect citizens.

Equally, we need to embrace the opportunity presented by AI, and have the ambition and confidence people in this House had 20 years ago, to embrace the kind of digital economies now central to our economy.

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