Mr. Paddy McGeoghegan:

The short answer to the Senator's question about the fear of this happening in Ireland is "yes". I am sure that other organisations never expected this would be an issue in their countries but it shows the psyche of these people and what they are prepared to do. I referred to the case in the UK and will go into more detail. That case was particularly disgusting. It involved a child of eight years, who lived with two long-term health conditions, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. As part of a fundraising challenge he aimed to walk 130 laps of the back garden unaided to raise funds for the Epilepsy Society in the UK. Efforts to promote it were targeted by not one or two but hundreds of flashing images, trying to induce seizures in people. You could not find words for it, it was a truly heinous act. Thankfully the wee fellow did not have a seizure but a number of people who followed the epilepsy charity had seizures when they saw it.

On other countries, the UK is in a very similar position. It has what is essentially the same Bill to come before the Commons. The Epilepsy Society there is campaigning for the same definition as ourselves. We want to get it in now rather than have to discuss it after it might happen as we are aware that it is an issue in other countries and these things tend to ripple across and reach our shores eventually. We want to classify it as online harmful content now and stop it before it even starts.