The European Commission Executive Vice-President has said the EU needs to have a debate about how to make its infrastructure more secure.

Margrethe Vestager was speaking in Dublin in the wake of the apparent sabotage of Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines into Europe in recent days.

"That is not only for infrastructure underwater, but of course our entire energy grid is digitalised which also means that the cybersecurity of our grid is of the essence and this is work in progress," she said.

This includes windmills and to a lesser degree solar panels, she indicated.

She said Ireland has a responsibility around cybersecurity, along with everyone else.

Ms Vestager said investigations are continuing to establish who was behind the act of sabotage on the pipelines.

She added that the methane coming out of them right now is very dangerous for climate change.

"The assessment so far by the authorities is it has the equivalent effect of one third of Danish emissions for a year," she said.

The Competition and Digital Commissioner said the EU is following the situation around the Ukraine war really closely, including the scam referendums and the annexation of four provinces.

She welcomed news out of Brussels that the council of energy ministers has approved legislation around a windfall tax on energy companies and moves to reduce peak hours demand for power.

"Implementing that could stabilise prices and hopefully always give a downward trend," she said to media following an address at an Ibec Global event.

The energy crisis was top of mind at a meeting between the commissioner and the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance this morning, she said, at which "good discussions" took place.

She said the Apple tax case was not discussed, and there was no sense of a grudge between Ireland and the Commission over that affair.

Regarding the performance of Ireland's Data Protection Commission, Ms Vestager said it was not for her to judge.

But she also said that because there had been "issues" and distrust between Ireland as an enforcer and member states where digital services are delivered, the system has been changed under new digital services legislation.

"So we made the system with better checks and balances and the end result is the Commission will be the enforcer when it comes to very large online platforms just as we are for the gatekeepers in the Markets Act," she said.

"And I think that shows that building trust is really important," she added.

She added that recent budget announcements here around further investment in enforcement capacity are helpful in that respect.

The executive vice-president also said the Commission is preparing for very close cooperation with national authorities as it implements the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

She said there is valuable experience in national competition authorities.

The Commissioner also pushed back against suggestions that her actions in trying to bring big tech to heel would make Europe less attractive for investment from such firms.

She claimed Europe is a very attractive market for tech companies, even taking into account the cost of living crisis and inflation.

The EU provides legal certainty, she said, with enhanced enforcement but one point of enforcement.

"That is really important because had we not done this we could see the fragmentation coming and that increases the cost of doing business," she stated.

She added that competition is good as it keeps firms on their toes.

Ms Vestager said she has no timeline on talks about a successor to the struck down EU-US data protection agreement, Privacy Shield.