Minister: Ireland will resist EU plans for massive data protection penalties

Government worried about impact on Irish-based international tech companies

“Any commentary that would suggest that regulatory failings in the banking sector for example, that any parallels that are sought to be found there, I think that would be unfair and inaccurate,” he said.Dara Murphy, Minister of State for Data Protection Feargal Ward

The government is set to resist EU plans to impose massive fines on companies such as Facebook and Google for any privacy breaches they commit. The proposed fines could be as high as 2 per cent of yearly global sales for mishandling or losing personal data under an overhaul of the EU’s privacy rules.

The government is concerned about the impact of the measure on the many technology companies based here, which include ...