Latest news with #GrahamDoyle
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on public sector reform: defining the powers of a tsar
The secretary general of the Department of Housing, Graham Doyle, caused something of a stir at a housing conference this week when he said that the State does not need a ' housing tsar' – the moniker given by the media to the person who will head a new office to try to accelerate housing provision. This idea is, of course, part of Government housing policy and the Minster for Housing, James Browne, has been trying to fill the post. A statement issued by the Department of Housing later the same evening said that Doyle had emphasised that the new Housing Activation Office (HAO) will have a chief executive with ' an interventionist' approach, but not a tsar ' and the connotations that word evokes.' Predictably the media was given the blame for the 'tsar' title, which we were told was 'misleading and not reflective of the real intent and purpose of the HAO.' Words are important here. The primary dictionary definition of a tsar obviously relates back to Russian history, but it can also refer to a person given power by a Government to deal with a particular issue. So what power will the head of the new office actually have? It is clear that the Department sees the HAO role as under its aegis, rather than the independent executive recommended in the report of the Housing Commission. Clearly the Minister, reporting to the Government, is ultimately responsible for this. He needs to make it clear how the incumbent will relate to his and other government departments and groups in the area, of which there are now a few new additions? READ MORE Clarity and accountability is vital. We have seen in other cases, such as the recent revelations surrounding Children's Health Ireland, how blurred lines can lead to a lack of transparency and questions over who is responsible. The housing secretary general is no doubt correct to observe that just knocking a few heads together is not going to solve the housing problem. But it may still be needed, particularly to sort out who exactly is responsible for what in the complicated structures now in place.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Sec Gen rejection of ‘housing tsar' shows Government ‘shambles'
Comments by a top civil servant that a Government-appointed 'housing tsar' was not needed underlines the 'utter shambles' of the response to the housing crisis, Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin has said. Mr Ó Broin, the party's housing spokesman, suggested that in making his comment, secretary general at the Department of Housing, Graham Doyle, was speaking for his equivalents in a number of other departments. Mr Doyle made his comments at the Property Industry Ireland (PII) conference in Dublin on Thursday. [ How housing 'tsar' became a PR problem for Government Opens in new window ] Referring to a poll of attendees on whether a housing tsar was necessary, Mr Doyle said: 'I like that poll; I voted no. READ MORE 'We do not need a housing tsar – can I just clear this one up please, once and for all.' His department subsequently issued a statement saying Mr Doyle was referring to his opposition to the term 'tsar', rather than to the role of the head of the Government's new Housing Activation Office (HAO). Asked on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne show if he thought Mr Doyle was only objecting to the word rather than the position Mr Ó Broin said: 'It's much more significant than that. First of all, it shows the utter shambles that the new administration is making of what was already a very, very bad housing crisis. 'When you go back to the first interview the Minister for Housing James Browne did in February he talked – and this was the Minister's language – about wanting a maverick to knock heads and kick down doors. 'If you have not only the secretary general of the Department of Housing – but I suspect Graham [Doyle] is also speaking for the secretary generals of the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform, and Finance – absolutely and very publicly and deliberately opposing the proposition, it tells me you have got a problem.' He described the HAO as a 'dead duck, before it has even started' and questioned how the Government would deal with 'resistance' from the Civil Service in implementing the body. On the same programme, Minister of State for Public Procurement Emer Higgins addressed the situation saying: 'I think we all agree that there needs to be a strategic housing delivery office, and ultimately, you need somebody to lead that.' She denied that the Government had used the term 'tsar'. It was her 'interpretation', she said, that Mr Doyle was opposed to the use of the term but was 'on board with the strategic Housing Activation Office which obviously needs a leader'. She said there was a 'recognition' in the Department of Housing that the HAO was necessary and said 'we don't need to get bogged down in terminology the Government has never used'.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
‘We do not need housing tsar' says sec gen at Department of Housing
The appointment of a 'housing tsar' has been opposed by the top civil servant at the Department of Housing, Graham Doyle. Mr Doyle spoke against the introduction of a new 'tsar' at the Property Industry Ireland (PII) conference in Dublin on Thursday. 'I like that poll, I voted no,' Mr Doyle said, referring to a poll of conference attendees on whether a housing tsar was necessary. 'We do not need a housing tsar, can I just clear this one up, once and for all.' READ MORE The position to head the new Housing Activation Office (HAO) was suggested by Minister James Browne, who also spoke at the conference. [ Why is the housing crisis Ireland's most enduring failure? Opens in new window ] [ Housing tsar row masks a much deeper problem for the Government Opens in new window ] While an appointment was blocked by Fine Gael at the start of May, the Government has insisted it will be going ahead with the plan. Responding to the questions on the secretary general's comments on Thursday Minister for Public Expenditure and Infrastructure Jack Chambers said: 'We've been very clear. The Government position is that there will be someone leading the Housing Activation Office, and it's a matter of Government policy and direction that that's what will occur.' Mr Chambers, speaking at the launch of the public consultation period for the National Development Plan review, added that the secretary general's view 'might be his own perspective' but 'he'll have to implement what Government decides'. The HAO position is intended to eliminate blockages stopping the development of new housing units. 'The Minister and the department have a job to do around housing policy – it's very much about creating an environment for people in this room to deliver and do what they do,' Mr Doyle went on to say at the conference. He stressed that the work the department does is in the policy and funding space as well as removing obstacles for construction efforts. 'We don't need a tsar to do all of that and we never, ever used the word tsar,' he said. 'What we do need is an interventionist approach on the ground, at the site level, where we are talking about coalescing the various infrastructure, the local authority actions and infrastructure pieces. 'There is a sense in some quarters that if you knock a few heads together, if you give enough people a kick in the backside, then things happen. I only wish that was the case.' He said the way to 'coalesce' the actions of the State bodies to maximise housing output 'is to look at all those very detailed issues down at that level.' 'Those who said this is about doing the Minister's job are talking utter nonsense,' Mr Doyle said. 'As a civil servant, I don't like using phrases like that, but it really was.'
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
TikTok appeals DPC's €530m fine for improper data transfer, and takes Commission to the High Court
It is the latest legal attempt by Big Tech to overturn penalties imposed by the Irish privacy regulator. Of the more than €4bn in fines levied on companies including Meta and Amazon, only €20m has been paid so far. The other penalties are being challenged in the Irish courts. There is no date set for any of the hearings, as a decision is awaited from the European Court of Justice on a key legal point. The latest legal challenge, in which TikTok is being represented by Mason Hayes & Curran, relates to a DPC decision earlier this month to penalise the social network over improper data transfers from Ireland and the EU to China. 'TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of European Economic Area (EEA) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,' DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said at the time. 'As a result of TikTok's failure to undertake the necessary assessments, TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EEA personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards.' We believe the EU should welcome and support solutions like Project Clover As well as the fine, TikTok was ordered to bring its processing into compliance within six months. In a further 'serious development', the DPC noted that, throughout its inquiry, TikTok had said it did not store EEA user data on servers in China. However, in April it told the regulator that, two months earlier, it discovered that 'limited' data had in fact been stored on Chinese servers. 'TikTok informed the DPC that this discovery meant it had provided inaccurate information to the inquiry,' the regulator pointed out. The DPC is currently engaging with other European data regulators on that issue. After the DPC announced the fine, TikTok said it disagreed with the decision and planned to appeal it in full. Christine Grahn, its head of public policy and government relations in Europe, claimed the decision failed to fully consider Project Clover, its €12bn industry-leading data security initiative that includes some of the most stringent data protections anywhere. 'It instead focuses on a select period from years ago, prior to Clover's 2023 implementation, and does not reflect the safeguards now in place,' she said. ADVERTISEMENT 'The DPC itself recorded in its report what TikTok has consistently said: it has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.' Ms Grahn said that with 175 million users in Europe, more than 6,000 employees, and a platform that has helped small businesses contribute €4.8bn to GDP and over 51,000 jobs, TikTok was deeply integrated into Europe's economy. TikTok also claimed the penalty delivered a blow to the EU's competitiveness. 'At a time when European businesses and economies need innovation, growth and jobs, we believe the EU should welcome and support solutions like Project Clover, as a way to facilitate secure data flows between the EU and non-adequate countries, while guaranteeing the most robust protections for European data security and privacy.'
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
TikTok sues Ireland's data protection watchdog over €530m penalty from regulator
Tech giant TikTok has sued the Data Protection Commission in objection to a massive €530m penalty it received from the regulator earlier this month. The social media company lodged papers in the High Court on Tuesday for a judicial review against the DPC. Neither TikTok nor the DPC had responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. A judicial review relates to the courts reviewing the correctness or otherwise in law of a decision made by an organ of the State, be it a Government Department or a semi-state agency. The suit is understood to relate directly to the DPC's decision to hand the enormous fine to TikTok over the transfer of users' personal data from Europe to China. Issuing that decision on May 2, the DPC told the Chinese-owned firm that it had breached Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) over the transfer of data to China and its own transparency requirements. The DPC said at the time that the fine — the second largest issued under GDPR in the DPC's history — had resulted from the company having 'failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of European Economic Area users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU'. 'As a result of TikTok's failure to undertake the necessary assessments, TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EEA personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards,' the DPC's deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said at the time. The administrative fine of €530m was accompanied by a direction requiring TikTok to bring its processing into compliance within six months. The company was also ordered to suspend transfers to China if the way it processes data is not brought into compliance over the same timeframe. Throughout the inquiry into TikTok the DPC had said that the company had maintained that it did not store data from users in the European Economic Area on servers located in China. In April, however, TikTok informed the DPC that it had discovered 'limited' European data had been stored on servers in China. The company said it had identified this in February. TikTok informed the DPC that this discovery 'meant that TikTok had provided inaccurate information to the inquiry'. Earlier this month the DPC said that it is taking recent developments regarding the storage of EEA User Data on servers in China 'very seriously'. 'Whilst TikTok has informed the DPC that the data has now been deleted, we are considering what further regulatory action may be warranted, in consultation with our peer EU Data Protection Authorities,' Mr Doyle said at the time. In 2023, the Commission fined TikTok €345m after an investigation into how the platform processed children's data. Read More Limerick-based Carelon Global Solutions to close with loss of 300 jobs
