Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the managing director of a company (details supplied) has admitted that cloud data is not protected against the USA Patriot Act and his plans to raise this at EU level with the Commissioner. [19348/11]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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My attention had not been drawn to the specific comments of the UK company MD to which the deputy refers. However, I am aware that the Irish equivalent company point out that cloud data is not in any different position than any other kind of data in terms of its exposure to government access, whether by the US or many other countries.

A recent report by ENISA, the EU body responsible for information security concluded that holding data in the cloud could represent both a risk and a protection in that the concentrations of data may be an attractive target but the economies of scale can allow defences to be more robust. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has pointed out that robust EU and national data protection laws must be complied with and that the legislation is technology neutral and must be complied with equally when data is moved to the cloud.

Ireland is extremely well-placed to take advantage of the rapidly-growing international potential of cloud computing. A recent report commissioned by Microsoft has estimated that by 2014 the cloud computing industry in Ireland could be worth €9.5 billion and employ 8,600 people. Now more than ever we must do everything we can to seize opportunities like this. I do not believe that these jobs will be created automatically, and Government must act decisively and urgently if we are to position Ireland as a world leader in this high-growth sector. In May I announced the establishment of a €5 million applied research centre in cloud computing, which will bring industry and researchers in this sector together in order to turn good ideas into good jobs. I have also established a cross-Government implementation group on cloud computing, to support the implementation of the ambitious programme for Government commitment on cloud computing.