Eamon Ryan is Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
Now the last time I checked Communications included such things as ISPs, broadband, internet – you know, that sort of thing.
I was also under the rather naive impression that Dail ministers couldn’t opt out of parts of their own portfolio. You know, ignore those bits of their portfolio that might make them actually have to deal with real and substantive issues.
As MD of Blacknight I am our representative to the Irish ISP Association (ISPAI). I’m also on the organisation’s working group for data retention.
We’ve been working with our members and the various government departments and Gardai on the transposition of the directive into Irish law. I won’t bore you with the details of this at the moment – it would also put me in a bad mood to even think about it!
A couple of weeks ago the ISPAI sent letters to various Irish government ministers including Mr Eamon Ryan, Minister for Communications (etc)
The letters attached (pdf) are the letter from the ISPAI to Mr Ryan and his signed response.
Considering the directive itself refers specifically to communications (Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC) his reply has left me more than a little confused:
I have no function in this matter
Sorry? You’re the minister for Communications. How on earth can you hope to get away by saying you have no function in this matter? The directive affects just about everything your department is in charge of.
So I have to ask dear reader, what purpose does Eamon Ryan serve?
EamonRyanispailetter.pdf
eamonryan-reply.pdf
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