Does anybody know if there are significant differences between Ireland and Germany, concerning things like privacy and copyright protection? Perhaps there are same laws in EU, which are just enforced less in one country?
Yes. Irish data protection law is not as strong as other countries. And the government only care about jobs, and promoting the "smart economy". If big tech companies get annoyed at data protection law, they can tell the government that they'd pull out unless things quiet down. The Irish government don't want to "destroy jobs".