Mr. Raymond Byrne:

It is so important that, as Professor O'Connell has said, those offences are named. One of the real difficulties for the Garda at the moment is that it operates under the 1997 Act, which is fine in so far as direct harassment is concerned, but social media indirect victim shaming is not covered by the legislation, so this gap filling is extremely important. Without this it is not possible to pursue this particular form of online harassment. This is where the commission identified a very serious gap in the legislation, which is completely understandable when we consider the 1997 legislation was far-reaching in its time but it is now 20 years on. That is one aspect of the gap filling required. The other aspect is what people do now. Yes, there are civil remedies but we know it is far beyond most people's reach to go to the High Court and get any kind of remedy. This is why it is so important to have codes of practice that are statutorily underpinned.