Ms Orla Twomey:

I thank Deputy Mythen for his questions. As for how the ASAI ensures we take account of general and societal concerns, we have, as I said, been in existence for 40 years. We are on the seventh edition of our code. When we review our code we consult widely and write to industry associations, NGOs, advocacy groups and Government Departments across the whole gamut of the code. We also advertise publicly, looking for the public to submit their views on the code. We thoroughly examine every single aspect of the submissions made to us. As I said in 2015 when we introduced the previous code, we undertook to the Department of Health that we would consult on HFSS rules but we got overtaken by the Department process.

It is also important to note that in the type of self-regulation that the ASAI and the EASA practise, we have a code that is consulted on. We have a separate body, the ASAI executive, which does the investigation, the assessment and the bringing of cases to our complaints committee. That is separate from the industry and from the board. Then we have the ASAI complaints committee, who are the ones who adjudicate on complaints. That is made up of a mixture of independent people and people from the industry with a majority who are independent, led by an independent chairperson. There is therefore lots of independence and controls built into the system to ensure the decisions we come to are fair and in line with the code rather than taking account of a particular industry sector.

I will point to one other important element of the Bill. It is not envisaged, to the best of my knowledge, that the media commission will have an individual complaints mechanism.

The Bill recognises they will be looking at it on a systemic basis, that there will be a super complaints scheme for notified bodies, and they will require the platforms to have a complaints mechanism in place to which people can make complaints directly. In the ASAI, we think it is important people have an opportunity to make a complaint other than to the platforms carrying the ads. They should have the opportunity to make complaints to an outside independent body that has an independent adjudication process.