Ireland's hefty data industry demands equally big industry cop Whether it likes it or not, the Republic of Ireland has become a battleground between the EU and US legal systems – and between those two mighty forces and the forces of American mega corporations. It is in Ireland, where servers operated by Microsoft reside, that the US Department of Justice has demanded it has the right to …
"a competent and mature regulatory environment that these multinational data-guzzlers would want to operate in."
I'd have thought it was just the sort of environment they'd want to avoid. It's one their more thoughtful customers would want them to operate in but then the customers don't have much choice. Insurance customers have more choice which is why it's important to provide a strongly regulated market.
A lot of institutions in Ireland still adhere to the philosophy of the world operating to principles rather than rules. That really worked well by greasing the slope that led to the crisis. The country has gone into remission, but has not been cured. "Rules are made to be broken" and all that.
And Data Protection? Maybe the Government has the correct approach. If you invite an 800lb gorilla into your sitting room, you probably need manners to avoid being pulled limb from limb. Better to aspire to be the "best little country in the world to do business"
It's certainly a welcoming approach.
Mr US corporation, put your HQ in Ireland and you can slurp data from anywhere in Europe.
Regulators? We have Mrs Muggins who does Wednesday afternoons.
Still not as profitable as London's financial services industry held in check by the iron grip of the SFO.
I wonder if your tongue is ever so slightly in cheek @Yet_Another_Anonymous_Coward regarding the SFO ?
Point made in the article seemed to be that regulations need investment, and when they're ruinous of the end (holding business to account without unduly constraining it) they should be abolished and new regulators instituted. Chimes with my small-l sensibilities anyway.
The regulation is more in theory than in practice. That is the way they sell it to the big data clients. In due course, spurred by DRI, a case or cases will arise and then shit will hit fan.
OTOH annother reason they are there is, apparently, the weather..... nice and cool, lower energy costs.
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