Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have been involved with An Garda in cases of this nature and it is capable of taking prosecutions. The difficulty for it, on a practical basis, is getting social media companies and telecommunications companies to respond to it in a timely way in order to access the evidence that it needs to be able to take the different cases.

The Garda is clearly able to take the cases and under the powers provided to investigate, take statements and make prosecutions of this nature. From my perspective I was very happy to put this amendment down because it gives us an opportunity to have this discussion and to get the clarification from the Minister on the sentencing side of this. The powers are clearly there but I use this opportunity to call on telecommunications and social media companies to be of greater assistance to An Garda than they have been.