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THE OFFICE OF the Data Protection Commission has said it had “categorically” never been lobbied by former taoiseach Enda Kenny or his office.
The statement comes after the government has been urged to make a statement after The Observer published claims that former Taoiseach Enda Kenny offered to use Ireland’s position to lobby on behalf of Facebook on EU data legislation.
“I can categorically confirm that our office has never been lobbied by Enda Kenny or his office,” ODPC head of communications Graham Doyle said.
In a statement to reporters, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that it was up to enda Kenny whether he commented on the story, but added that he doesn’t feel Kenny has to.
Varadkar says he gets lobbied all the time from the large multinationals, and that Ireland has a “good relationship” with all big tech companies, but Facebook is no different from the rest.
Christina Finn / TwitterTaoiseach Leo Varadkar says it is up to former Taoiseach Enda Kenny if he wants to make a statement about Facebook story, but he says he doesn’t feel Kenny has to.
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) March 4, 2019
Varadkar says he gets lobbied all the time from the large multinationals pic.twitter.com/FZW4Jduumd
The article published details from a Facebook memo which described Kenny as a “friend of Facebook” and said that the company had a “great relationship” with the former Taoiseach.
The memo claimed that Kenny stated that Ireland’s presidency of the EU provided “the opportunity to influence the European Data Directive decisions” and that Ireland could also influence other member states, “even though technically Ireland is supposed to remain neutral in this role”.
The memo was reportedly contained in court documents as part of a California court case involving Facebook.
Ireland held the presidency of the EU between January-June 2013 during Kenny’s first term as Taoiseach.
Facebook’s international headquarters are located in Dublin and the article notes the critical role played by Ireland’s data protection commissioner on an EU-wide basis.
In response to the claims made in the article, Fianna Fáil’s enterprise spokesperson Billy Kelleher TD said questions needed to be answered.
“This will require a statement to clarify it (sic) the government and its diplomatic services were being used to lobby other EU member states on behalf of Facebook,” Kelleher tweeted.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Minister for Communications Richard Bruton said that “there’s some things that are absolutely clear”, as he addressed the reports.
“Firstly, there is no watered down rules in Ireland on GDPR. Secondly, it was Enda Kenny himself who dramatically strengthened the powers and resources of the Data Protection Commissioner here in Ireland. Thirdly, both holders of that office have stated that they had no interference from government,” Bruton said.
“I think there’s very strong indication as to the position that Ireland has taken and it has always been that we need strong and fair regulation of these companies,” he said.
“Of course these companies are important players and if they express a view about developing legislation they have to be listened to, just like any other view will be listened to in framing legislation.”
Kenny’s office has been contacted for a statement.
With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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That doesn’t make sense – if all they were worth is €100,000 , would it not better be to keep them for now?? As in they pretty much already brought all loss they possibly could…
I couldn’t make such bollox of something like that deal no matter how hard I tried.
The interesting thing though is that if you did it, you would loose your job for The 3p’s – piss poor performance. In Ireland no one will loose their jobs, no one will be held accountable for this latest disaster in our banks. Same shite for decades, when AIB went bust in the 80′s and were bailed out by Garret Fitz and FG, no one was held accountable, no bonuses were cut. Garrett got a non-recourse loan off the back of that in thanks. The banks own FG and FF, and neither party will say boo to them for any actions they take.
A.I.B. aren’t alone there, a fair chunk of the country lost varying amounts in Bulgaria, thinking it was the next property bubble.
40 grand for a single room (sorry, studio!) with jacks off it, only about four hours by road from the nearest airport, and populated with surly youths and opportunistic taxi drivers.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t too dissimiliar to the Irish property market in parts, at all!
Except for the price that is. But 230 million down to a hundred k is hard to beat!
So many people have lost their investments in Bulgarian property, so many have lost their investments in AIB shares…but at least the directors are still well paid!
This should have been listed for sale in the Irish Papers first , Minister reprimand this official please , any more surprises !
Do you really think anyone in Ireland would invest €35,100,000 in a Bulgarian bank riddled with debt?
If someone is willing to pay 100k surely they intend to turn profit so why AIB can’t? Are they stupid or what? Why this wasn’t offered for sale here???
Because the people that were investing were taking on a heap of debt.
Yes Sean, yes they are!
I can understand at some stage having to cut your losses but I would like to know if any of the “lads” made a nice profit on this deal.
Bunch of useless gangsters and morons, all of them
Can’t say I’m crying any tears for them, except that no doubt they’ll find some way of making the taxpayer foot the bill for the loss.
*facepalm
This stinks, sold to the girlfriend ? The AIB executives involved should be named and shamed. A file should be sent to the DPP but it will sit there with the rest.
If AIB and Bank of Ireland or Anglo Irish Directors start going to jail, they are going to take a lot of FF and FG TD’s with them. They aren’t going to allow that, better to just over look the free loans and debt cancellations that the banks gave to Taoiseach’s such as Haughey and Garrett Fitzgerald.
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