Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to recognise that the headquarters of Facebook is in Ireland and we very much appreciate the employment it provides here. It is great to have three women here to represent the company. That is an unusual sight and I wish to acknowledge it. There is so much I could say about this issue that I am in danger of going on all day and so I will try to break it up into three sections.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have a huge responsibility to children in particular. Young people's feelings of self-worth are of great importance. There is a limit to what those companies can do to control that and I appreciate what the witnesses have said about balance and so on. Many recent studies that I do not have with me but which I know and are on my website show that mental health difficulties as a result of a variety of things that happen on social media are real and very serious. Forgive me if the matter was addressed before I arrived but is there space in the Facebook budget, from its very extensive advertising revenue, to promote positive mental health initiatives? That would be a very positive step for the company to take to counter the negative effects of social media and its negative perception in that regard.