Four MEPs – Sophie in ‘t Veld and Tineke Strik from the Netherlands, and Cornelia Ernst and Birgit Sippel from Germany – last month wrote to Didier Reynders, the European commissioner for justice, to call for penalties against Ireland for failing to enforce the GDPR.

However, according to POLITICO, Mr Reynders has responded with a defence of the Irish regulator, noting the issues it is dealing with are “complex”.

He said claims that the DPC failed to send draft decisions to its European colleagues on 98 per cent of major EU-wide cases, first raised last year by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), “appears to be a misinterpretation” of official figures.

Mr Reynders added: “We have not so far identified issues with the Irish data protection rules or have evidence that these rules have not been respected.”