Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Quill and Mr. Shanley for their work on the OSMR Bill. It has been a difficult process and there has been much debate on it. I am certainly happy that the Minister has taken on board many of this committee's recommendations from our report.

I would like to focus on two key issues that the witnesses may be able to respond to. One is the timeframe linking the Bill and the outcome of the trilogue with regard to the DSA and our final objectives. What will the final picture look like? In the context of the timeframe, Ms Greene mentioned the fact that the European Parliament is voting this week on the amendments and that it is a priority for the French Presidency. We should work on the basis that we will probably see the DSA by the end of June. Obviously, at the same time, we are here dealing with the OSMR Bill.

The Minister has indicated, which I welcome, that she will set up a panel to look at the possibility of an individual complaints mechanism, because that will inform the debate here for the online safety commissioner. I am keen to find out from the Department's media side the timeframe that would be followed with regard to this expert group looking at the individual complaints mechanism being examined and reporting back, and then when we may consider the Bill as a Legislature. When it will come before this committee again, the Dáil and Seanad? Is it still reasonable - and I certainly hope that it would be - that the Bill could be enacted before the summer? I would certainly be disappointed if it is not, but that timeframe could be followed.

In terms of the DSC, I envisage that given we are now setting up a new architecture around a media commission and an online safety commissioner that those roles, as envisaged within the DSA, would form part of that new media commission. It does not make sense to set up a new structure when we are already setting up a new structure. Given the scale of what it will have to oversee, what kind of staffing arrangements will be required to ensure that it can operate effectively? I appreciate the DSA has not been finalised yet.

I believe the media commission, when it is set up, will be one of the most powerful regulators in the State and I want to ensure it will be adequately resourced.

Given this will be a dynamic space and we do not know what technology will deliver for us over the next number of years, is it the witnesses' view that we will probably come back regularly, if not annually, to update our legislation in this area? We will probably be giving the new media commission additional statutory powers to deal with new technologies, be they artificial intelligence or algorithmic decision-making. In all those spaces, decisions will be made at national and European level. Do the witnesses envisage that we will have to add statutory powers regularly to the media commission? I will stop at this point to allow our guests time to answer.