James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be as succinct as possible. I have two questions, one for the Minister, Deputy Bruton, on the Irish environment and the new proposals, and one for the panel as a whole on regulatory enforcement. I welcomed the announcements this week and the Minister alluded to a number of other proposed measures. I look forward to reviewing the details of those when they are published. One of the findings of the committee in its discussions today and in some of the preliminary discussions yesterday has been that we should not delay because, as Mr. Rotenberg said, delay only suits the platforms. There is an urgency about all of this. Our Canadian colleagues told us yesterday that we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good but must plough on and take steps. That point was well made. We may not take the final step but we must take the first steps and every step forward is progress. In that vein, on the proposals the Minister mentioned, two Private Members' Bills that deal with these matters are before the committee. These are the Digital Safety Commissioner Bill 2017 and the Online Advertising and Social Media (Transparency) Bill 2017, which I proposed. Both of these Bills have undergone detailed scrutiny on First and Second Stage in the Dáil. It would be prudent to consider these as vehicles to make progress, even if they are superseded by Government legislation. That would certainly fit the theme we discussed of making rapid progress and putting something in place rather than letting more elections take place in the absence of action. Perhaps the Minister will respond before I put a question to the panel.