Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our witnesses not just for their presentations but for their submissions, which have been highly informative. I have a question for each of the three witnesses. In response to Mr. Lupton, we will be constantly amending legislation in this area as the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act come down the track.

In considering this, a crucial question will concern the thresholds for complaints, particularly if we introduce an individual complaints mechanism, and how we should go about defining online harm.

Ms Fitzpatrick argued that we should not make senior management liable, an issue on which I am not going to take a position. She will be aware that in workplace safety legislation and through the work of the Health and Safety Authority, we make senior management liable in the case of serious breaches of workplace safety legislation. How is that to be differentiated from the circumstances we are discussing, where senior management knowingly fails to take action where serious online harm is done?

My final question is for Dr. Docquir. I like the idea of digital advisory panels and so on but the only example of that globally at present is the Facebook oversight board. What are his views on that and on Facebook maintaining that the board is independent? I would question that but I would be grateful to hear Dr. Docquir's views. If we were to establish a panel here, particularly on a statutory basis, how might it operate?