Ireland is effectively the European data regulator for Big Tech as so many European headquarters of multimillion tech companies are based there – it is the “lead supervisory authority” under the GDPR One- Stop-Shop for Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. Not a small task to manage for one DPA – even if the office has received considerably more financial resources since the GDPR entered into force.

The hurdles around administrative law in Ireland have led some commentators to say that Ireland’s DPA is the bottleneck of enforcement on Big Tech. But how much is Ireland’s DPA to blame? Does the whole system suffer from procedural problems that can only be resolved by changing the way the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) operates?