Top 5 Irish tech policy stories of the week

Minister Calleary promoted to Cabinet

Tánaiste,?Micheál Martin?promoted Minister Dara Calleary to Junior Minister attending Cabinet this week.?Calleary is Minister?of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment . He will now attend Cabinet meetings. Minister Calleary said that the digital community will be one of his key areas of focus.

Irish people more nervous about AI than global average

Research carried out by Ipsos B&A and TechScape found that just over two thirds of Irish people admit to a degree of nervousness about what AI might mean over the next five years, 17%?higher than the global average.?Irish people also have less trust than the global average that companies which use AI will protect their personal data and Ireland is the only country where people believe that AI is more likely to be a force for discrimination than human beings ever were.

Government memo raises concerns about impact of data centre restrictions on the economy

In a note prepared for Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke, officials raised concerns that?data centre operators will lose faith that Ireland can overcome energy supply issues and will go elsewhere. They also warned that a slowdown in data centre activity would “adversely affect the economics” for energy developers, which they say could damage the country’s renewable energy targets.

NCSC holds day of collaboration with delegates

Last week, the National Cyber Security Centre, Ireland (NCSC-IE) welcomed over 90 delegates from the EU, Norway and Iceland for a day of collaboration and discussion on best practice for governance of the Network and its Working Groups and current and future cybersecurity funding through the Digital Europe Programme at the National Coordination Centres (NCCs) Network meeting. This was followed by a two-day meeting of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) Governing Board.

Coimisiún na Meán publishes new draft code for video on-demand services

Coimisiún na Meán has published their draft Audiovisual On-Demand Media (Video-on-demand) Service Code and Rules. Once finalised, these will apply to Video-on-demand providers wth their EU HQ in Ireland. The draft Code requires providers to restrict content that incites terrorism or hatred and to protect children from harmful content through warnings, age controls, and other measures. The draft rules also mandate making programming accessible to people with disabilities. A public consultation on the code and rules is running until August 6th.