Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. First of all, my apologies. I was in the Dáil speaking about mental health and health issues, so I missed Ms Plunkett's presentation, which I will certainly play back. A few questions struck me while listening to the debate. Is this a worldwide model that these platforms apply? Are there better practices in other countries from which we should be learning?

I was disturbed to hear that the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, which is an enforcement agency, had not taken some complaints seriously. We should probably hear from the HSA so it can account for that. I would like to understand a little bit more clearly what the defects were in that enforcement. It would be a serious matter because the HSA is an independent body. From listening to some of the contributions, it seems to me that there may be breaches of health and safety legislation without any new legislation. I am not an expert in this field, however.

Has the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, addressed any of these issues? I know cases are pending, which are obviously at the very serious end of damage. In terms of the WRC responding to this concern, have there been any cases or are there evolving codes of practice that we might seek to accelerate?

I was involved in the preparation of legislation on online safety from the perspective of the user as opposed to the platform. One of the things we proposed, however, was that there would be a digital safety commissioner who would oversee codes of practice so that one would be obliged to have those codes of practice meet certain expectations and principles and so forth. Is that a potential route to go along? That legislation is comparatively advanced, although it is not published. Would that be a potential vehicle for meeting some of Ms Plunkett's concerns?