Irish parliament expands Microsoft use, despite the EU’s efforts to ditch it
The Irish parliament is moving its telephone system to Microsoft Teams at a time when European nations are actively trying to reduce their dependence on US tech
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The Irish parliament is moving its telephone system to Microsoft Teams at a time when European nations are actively trying to reduce their dependence on US tech.
- The Irish parliament is moving its telephone system to Microsoft Teams, expanding the use of the productivity suite.
- The switch comes as the EU and individual member states seek to reduce their digital dependence on US tech.
- Ireland, home to many leading technology companies, heavily relies on their corporate tax revenues.
With landline phones disappearing from offices, the Houses of the Oireachtas – the Irish parliament – have been transferring their telephone system to Microsoft Teams, Dublin InQuirer reports.
The change is part of a wider trend in which the parliament has increasingly adopted Microsoft systems, including for email, document storage, and internal messaging.
While Microsoft 365 is the most widely used productivity suite in the world, employed by governments and businesses worldwide, the expansion runs counter to recent efforts by the EU and individual member states to break away from American tech.
Ireland itself signed the Declaration for European Digital Sovereignty in November 2025, at least partly motivated by increasingly hostile policies by the Donald Trump administration.
The Irish parliament has been using the desktop version of Microsoft Teams for years, but replacing telephone systems with the software marks a new level of dependence. Irish experts have warned of potential security risks.
However, Dublin’s move against the tide may come as no surprise given the country’s unique position. Sixteen of the twenty world’s top tech companies operate hubs in Ireland. Of those, Apple and Microsoft paid nearly 40% of all corporate tax in the country in 2024.
Ireland’s fiscal watchdog recently warned about the risks of a high concentration of corporate tax revenues, making them more exposed to “specific firms and the decisions they make.”
Why do Europeans mistrust Microsoft?
In the rest of Europe, however, concerns over digital reliance on the US are increasingly hard to ignore. And Microsoft software is where many start cutting the cord.
National and state governments in France, Germany, and Austria have already replaced Microsoft products with local open-source alternatives. Many others are exploring the options to make the switch possible.
The independence push is mainly fueled by data privacy concerns. US laws, such as the Cloud Act, require American companies to hand over data requested by its law enforcement, even if it is stored elsewhere.
Concerns were further heightened by accusations that Microsoft leaked data of Dutch civil servants working on the EU’s digital laws to the US House of Representatives.
A “kill switch” scenario, in which the US government orders American companies to disable services overseas, is also what keeps Europeans up at night.
A report by the Future of Technology Institute, released in April, found that most European defense agencies are vulnerable to a “kill switch,” primarily because they are directly contracting a US tech company for cloud services.
A recent decision by the Trump administration to temporarily suspend access to Anthropic’s most advanced models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for non-American citizens once again fueled concerns about the “kill switch” scenario.
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