Ms Celene Craig:

I will answer the Senator's first two questions. The BAI waived the industry levy for commercial and community radio stations during the first half of 2020 in view of the extremely adverse financial circumstances in which the sector found itself arising from the Covid pandemic. The Minister had asked us to consider that request, which we did. There are no immediate plans to waive the levy further. However, the BAI has been busy, both last year and continuing into the current year, in disbursing funds that the Minister has made available in addition to the normal funds that would accrue to the sound and vision scheme. The sound and vision rounds of programme funding are being made available across the various sectors of the broadcasting industry. That additional financial benefit is accruing in recognition of their contributions to the provision of content as it links to the pandemic both last year and as it is unfolding, and the issues that are arising in the current year.

We have flagged disinformation as an area of major concern for the BAI, as a regulator, and also for our European colleagues. We felt it was important to raise this with the committee. We also suggested that some time might be taken before this would be considered for inclusion in legislation. The scope of obligations and functions that will fall to the new media commission is very wide. It might be best to let the commission get on with regulating in the space of personal harms as they are articulated in the Bill. Nonetheless, we believe this is an ongoing issue.

The second possible reason to defer consideration of inclusion in the legislation at this point is that there is potential at European level for the introduction of new legislation to address disinformation. This would allow Ireland then to co-ordinate with the European legislation in addressing it. The BAI is certainly satisfied to continue with its work in this space. We also believe that the media commission should stay actively involved in tracking developments in this area, particularly as they may have implications within Ireland. The commission should also have a wider sense of what is happening at the European level and beyond. The new regulator should certainly stay in that space, albeit there might be some value in postponing the inclusion of it within the legislation pending clarification of potential developments at the European level. It is very actively under discussion and we would expect it to become clear later this year or at the very latest early next year.

I know the Senator addressed this question to the DPC. However, I might just address the concern that certain categories of online harm might be excluded. This area might benefit from clarification with the departmental officials. Our reading of the general scheme was not that categories of online harm would be excluded by virtue of the fact that they might contain some personal data, but rather that it was more to protect the functions of the Data Protection Commissioner and make those clear and distinct from the functions of the media commission. Therefore, determinations in respect of data protection would not be made by the media commission but rather they would be made by the Data Protection Commissioner and the powers of the media commission would be confined to issues as they concern online harm.

We realise that this is complex and that complaints may be made that will have a data protection element as well as involving an online harm element. The BAI very much supports this - indeed we proposed the approach within the Bill. We very much endorse the idea that the media commission could enter into structured co-operation agreements with other regulators. We would certainly foresee, particularly in the area of protection of minors, that there will be a need for very structured engagement between the media commission and the office of the Data Protection Commissioner. The BAI would certainly welcome early engagement with the Data Protection Commissioner in this regard. We believe that because of some of these complexities, a co-operation agreement that would allow us to clarify some of these issues would be very desirable and in the interests of both organisations.