Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations, which I have read. Common themes emerge, such as the lack of borders and harmful information spreading very quickly to very large audiences with no mechanisms to deal with it. There is a gap between legislation and the platforms as a result of how quickly they develop. There is a huge gap in legislation. I thank the Law Society for its submission, in which it points out that we rely on the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951 to deal with some of these issues. It is a terrible subject and difficult to listen to. I may come back to the ongoing training being provided to gardaí to deal with these very difficult subjects. No amount of legislation will sort this, although legislation is needed. It is clear that legislation should always be a last resort. Of course we need punishment for people who offend, but education is a very significant element as well, as are mechanisms that can deal with these issues very quickly so they do not progress further. We might look at that next week.

I thank the delegation from An Garda Síochána for its opening statement. It says, "It is planned that other members of the Garda Síochána will be trained in cyber crime awareness". When will that planned training start? It is crucial.