Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend. I agree with Deputy Naughten's comment that it is without precedent to have four Cabinet Ministers attending an Oireachtas committee meeting. This serves to underline the importance of the subject matter and it also acknowledges the importance of this committee, its influence and authority on this most important issue.

My Department deals with the criminal and legal aspects of Internet safety. We have strong laws to protect children and last year we introduced new offences to target child exploitation. The key criminal justice Acts in this area are the Child Trafficking and Pornography Acts 1998 to 2004. The existing law was amended by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 to enable a number of new offences to be added to combat the exploitation of children and, in particular, to address the use of modern communications technologies as a tool which may lead to child exploitation. Separately, heads of a Bill are currently being prepared in my Department to address specific criminal legislative recommendations that were set out in the Law Reform Commission's 2016 report on harmful communications and digital safety. The commission has proposed extending some existing offences and creating some new criminal offences.

My Department is responsible for criminal justice legislation while An Garda Síochána is responsible for ensuring the law is upheld. As part of the Garda modernisation and renewal programme there is significant focus on emerging threats, one of which is online child sexual exploitation. An Garda Síochána is responding to this challenge in a variety of ways including through the online child exploitation unit at the Garda national protection services bureau. Within the child protection unit at the Garda national protection services bureau, a new unit staffed by specialist personnel has been created which is tasked with the identification of online victims of exploitation.

Last October, Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll and his colleagues had a lengthy discussion with this committee on these issues. In recent weeks we have seen some of the successes of Operation Ketch which is targeting those possessing and distributing child exploitation material. In early February, Operation Ketch led to searches of 31 homes in 12 counties across the State and the seizure of computers, phones, laptops and other equipment with tens of thousands of images of child pornography. During this phase of the investigation, searches were carried out under warrant pursuant to the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 across a number of Garda divisions. The searches were carried out by newly-established divisional protection service units and local detective units. I want to acknowledge the work of An Garda Síochána in this regard. I must also point out that this is not just a national endeavour. There is a high level of co-operation between An Garda Síochána, other international police services, Interpol and Europol.

Alongside these criminal justice aspects my Department, in common with a number of other Departments, has a role in promoting Internet safety. The office for Internet safety in my Department coordinates the EU safer Internet programme for Ireland and channels EU funding to four partner bodies who in turn provide relevant Internet safety awareness raising, helpline and take down services. That office oversees the work of Hotline.ieand the Garda blocking initiative in the context of an EU directive on combatting the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. It has also developed Internet safety awareness material by working with its advisory body. Many committee members will have received copies of those information booklets in recent months.

My colleague, Deputy Denis Naughten, has an important role to play in this area and together with the Ministers for Children and Youth Affairs and Education and Skills, Deputies Zappone and Bruton, we are working to ensure that the various initiatives in Government have as much impact as possible. Part of this work involves the open policy debate which is scheduled to take place on 8 March 2018 to which Deputy Naughten already referred. The key objectives of that debate will be to raise awareness of cross-departmental actions already taking place to deal with harmful online content, to identify any possible gaps in the Government's approach and the steps needed to address these. I acknowledge the importance of this committee in this area and assure members that any reports, observations or submissions made by the committee will be taken very seriously by my Department. I know that I speak for my Cabinet colleagues in that regard. The emphasis in the open policy debate will be on children and young people. Arising from that event it is anticipated that a whole-of-Government approach to this issue can be formulated and advanced.

Committee members will have noted from the wide range of contributions that have been made to date that the issue of cybersecurity for all and, in particular, for children and young people is a difficult one in the fast moving and vast arena that is modern communications. My colleagues and I are anxious to make progress while harnessing the best available information, expertise and experience. In that regard, I look forward to working closely with this committee and to receiving its report on this matter. I have no doubt that we will have an opportunity to meet again later in the year to monitor progress.