I thank Deputies Gibney, Gogarty, Healy-Rae and Dolan, who spoke so eloquently about this issue. I also thank People Before Profit and Deputies Boyd Barrett and Murphy for tabling this incredibly important Bill. It comes with a backdrop where we have all been subjected to abuse, as Sinéad was last night. I have been subjected to it myself, as has everybody in the House and particularly women. I do not think the gentlemen in the Chamber would disagree wthat women do face an increased amount of abuse online. I have been at the coalface of it and did what we think we should do, which is report it to An Garda Síochána. I had to report it on a number of occasions. It was perpetrated by an individual who was not faceless. An Garda Síochána investigated it further and sent it to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, to see whether it would prosecute, and the DPP decided against it. That individual felt emboldened enough by this to put a selfie up on Facebook with a pint of Guinness saying, "Niamh Smyth, you're a [you can guess what word he used] and I won". They were his words, "I won". I use this anecdote because everybody in the Chamber has felt it in one way or another. Our job is to ensure that our kids do not have to go through this or should not be subjected to it. Deputy Dolan comes from a generation where he has grown up with it and he used it at a time when it was not as toxic as it is today. As one of our colleagues in the Labour Party spoke about earlier, it was a place where people could engage with communities and people. It was like the playground for teenagers. In recent times, it really has gone into the gutter in certain respects and aspects. We need to address that. I am very thankful to People Before Profit for tabling the Bill on the recommender algorithms. We have a body of work to do on this. I am personally in favour. It is in the remit of the Department of the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, which is a different Department from mine, so I am speaking on my own behalf. Age verification is incredibly important. The European Commission is doing great work on this with the Digital Services Act but I have seen what they have done in France, who have powered ahead and taken it upon themselves nationally to bring in age verification. As member states we have to show the courage of our conviction and look at that and perhaps do it in an individual way as states to try to push this on with the Commission. That said, we have Coimisiún na Meán, which was established to look in depth into these issues to see how we can best address them and to try to address them at both a national and a European level. Online safety is a priority issue for the Government and for me particularly as I have responsibility for digitalisation and AI. As mentioned earlier, online safety will be front and centre during Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Our colleague in the Labour Party spoke about engaging with young people and having their voices in the conversation. This is incredibly important, but as the adults in the room, sometimes we may need to help them make the right decision by not having them exposed to this at a really young age. In the lead-up to the Presidency, we will see a youth forum take place, with young people invited to share their thoughts on online safety and how it might be enacted. The current approach is through the Digital Services Act, with the support of Coimisiún na Meán as Ireland's digital services co-ordinator. It is gathering information, collating it and sharing it with the Commission to act in the correct and proper way and, more importantly, to implement the Digital Services Act. Coimisiún na Meán is of the view that the recommender systems and their harmful effects are best addressed through the Digital Services Act, which is one of the laws that makes up Ireland's online safety framework. It came to this view as part of the process of developing the online safety code. As I have said, the Digital Services Act sets out a range of parameters by which platforms must set up their recommender systems, including options without profiling, to ensure children and young people are protected and that people's privacy is respected. Platforms must also be transparent about how they set up recommender systems. With the European Commission leading on regulation of the very large online platforms and search engines, there is a constituency for these platforms across the European Union. It must be acknowledged that this legislative framework is relatively new and the Digital Services Act has only applied since February 2024. However, the Government has ensured that Coimisiún na Meán is fully resourced, with more than 300 staff working in it. This means it is well placed to provide the support, expertise and assistance required by the European Commission to do the work it does. This is borne out in the preliminary findings made by the European Commission in its investigation into TikTok regarding the platform's recommender systems. Coimisiún na Meán supported the work of the European Commission in this regard. TikTok has a right of reply to these preliminary findings, as required by due process, but it is clear the European Commission has identified serious issues that TikTok will need to examine and assess. This demonstrates how the EU regulatory framework actively supports online safety. Introducing this Bill, with its provisions that would appear to go further than those set out by the Digital Services Act maximum harmonisation measure, would not be appropriate at this stage. The Digital Services Act, as part of Ireland's online safety framework, represents the best way to address and acknowledge the risks of recommender systems. That is why the Government cannot support the Bill. I reiterate for the benefit of the House that the Government is relentlessly committed to online safety, in particular for children and young people.

Sentiment score: 0.27