Why is the Government using its Presidency of the European Council to propose a massive undermining of the right of privacy of European citizens? The Irish Presidency has a proposal for the digital omnibus, which is a deregulation agenda in the interests of big tech. What it proposes is that, effectively, GDPR be disapplied when it comes to AI. As a result, the use of personal data will be presumed to be lawful as long as it is being used in terms of AI. This means that what currently would be illegal, which is collecting personal data for advertising, would become legal as long as it is being done under the guise of AI. Why is the Government pushing this deregulation agenda? Why is it pushing a massive giveaway of European citizens' personal data to big-tech corporations? Will the Government stop this and will it defend the right of privacy?

I happened to see some of the news coverage of the committee discussion in relation to this yesterday. I say this very respectfully, but sometimes there is a misrepresentation of the role of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It is not an executive function; it is a role to act as an honest broker in terms of bringing forward the various views raised by the 27 member states at meetings, often of officials through Coreper structures and the likes, as well. It is not a position of the Irish Presidency; it is a bringing forward of the feedback from the member states, fulfilling the honest broker role. From an Irish perspective, we take very seriously the need to live in an innovative European Union and an innovative Irish economy in the context of the benefits of AI that are there. We certainly are not in favour of a free-for-all. Far from it. Our view is quite the opposite when it comes to making sure that there are guardrails in place and that there is respect for citizens' rights. Some of the strengths of the European Union have been around having robust structures in place versus what happens in other parts of the world.