Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their very detailed presentation. There is a great deal of legislation in place, but enforcement seems to be lacking. The volume of traffic on these social networks is so huge that the mind boggles in terms of how one might even begin to trawl through all of the relevant material. It is always possible to deal with serious crime because the relevant laws are in place and the Garda will become involved because of the nature of such crimes. The most difficult crime to deal with is low-level, nuisance-type crime which is not serious enough to pursue, but it causes people the greatest level of discomfort. If a serious crime is committed, the perpetrator will more than likely end up in prison. There is a great deal of low-level, nuisance-type activity on social networks which no one is really too bothered about pursuing because doing so would take up too much time, funding, etc. In addition, no one wants to clog up the courts with cases relating to the matters to which I refer. However, the type of activity to which I refer is very abusive in nature and involves bullying. In order to plug the gap between serious and nuisance-type crimes, would our guests be of the view that it might be useful to establish a body similar to the Press Council which could deal with social media? People could bring their cases before such a body in order to have them examined without being obliged to initiate defamation proceedings, etc., in the courts.