Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will pose my questions together and then let the witnesses respond. I thank them for their presentations. I agree with Deputy Griffin's comments to Mr. McGeoghegan. We have been dealing in recent weeks with the issue of online abuse. To think there would be a new form, an even more twisted and vicious scenario where people would target those with photosensitive epilepsy to cause them physical harm, is beyond comprehension. It shows the importance of this Bill and the importance of Mr. McGeoghegan's presence here today to seek the inclusion of that amendment. From Mr. McGeoghegan speaking with his colleagues in the UK and the US, where this has been picked up, is it very extensive or is it still at a preliminary stage where those incidents have happened? Does Mr. McGeoghegan have a fear that such scenarios could happen in Ireland?

I thank Dr. Campbell and Ms Walsh for their presentations and for the data on the harm to children from junk food companies. I wrote down Dr. Campbell's comment on advertising from these companies suggesting food is the social glue that brings people together. That was quite insightful and it leads to my question in regard to her call for an outright ban. Advertising companies, because they have very talented people, will try to make sure they circumvent what is happening. We notice that many of these companies no longer actually market the product - the food. What they do is they market the brand, they market the coming together of people at a location, and it becomes a question of social status in the schoolyard, for example, “Did you go to McDonald's at the weekend?” The advertising will not actually advertise the Big Mac or the happy meal, and it is advertising the coming together at a place. That has been quite prevalent in very recent ads, which is what they are about.

As I said, ad companies are very creative. Back in the 1990s, when we had a Formula One team in this country with Jordan, it was sponsored by Benson & Hedges. Many countries banned advertising involving cigarettes so what did they do? They just rebranded the car, painted it gold and called it Buzzin Hornets. It actually made it more popular and they got more bang for their buck out of it.

In terms of Dr. Campbell's proposal, effectively, we are getting into a legal quagmire because it is calling for a ban on the company rather than a ban on the product, and because the company will circumvent any of those measures. I would like to hear her thoughts on that.

I thank Ms Twomey for the overall submission she made in respect of the Bill. At section 1.9 of her submission, she referred to protections concerning marketing communications related to gambling. A number of weeks ago, Professor Conor O’Mahony, the special rapporteur on children's affairs, came before the committee. He was adamant on the harm done to children from the age of 12 to 17, given three quarters of that age cohort in the country are gambling at present. The prevalence of online social media from an advertising point of view allows these companies to target such people. It is far better than newspapers or anything else we have dealt with heretofore because once people open an online betting account, the companies can then target those people's social media accounts as well. I would be very interested to hear Ms Twomey’s thoughts on that whole sphere because Professor O’Mahony has called specifically for an amendment on the definitions of online harm and suggested that financially harmful content should be included in that whole sphere as well.