Mr. Peter Feeney:

In my personal view, anonymity allows too much freedom to abuse, to defame people and to be aggressive, etc. I really do not see why social media companies cannot be held responsible, when they are able to trace anonymous people very quickly. I simply do not buy into it. People were convicted recently of putting up the identities of the boys who murdered a poor girl in west Dublin. It was possible to find out who those people were, even though they put up the tweets anonymously. Social media companies have that information. If they do not have it, they should have it. People are being given the space to say things which can be hurtful, harmful or damaging, etc. They should be traced, just as they would be if they put up child abuse content or child pornography. We should be able to find out who is putting that up.

It is a factor that social media is international. You will find that the material originates somewhere in California or in Indonesia. However, international law enforcement agencies should be able to go to California or Indonesia and find out who the child pornographers are. There has been great success in prosecuting people in respect of child pornography. However, the same applies to other forms of misuse of social media - it should be possible to find out who the person is. I have mixed views on anonymity. Generally, I think newspaper letter writers are much better if they put their name to the end of it. This is because you will know where person is coming from. You will know that the man in question owns a pub, for example, and that is why he is making a certain argument, or whatever else it happens to be. If you just put up "Peter Pan", you do not get that context. Much of the time, you discover that the local person might have a particular insight into a particular issue, etc.

I share the Senator’s view about the value of local broadcasting, local radio services and local newspapers. The point made by Deputy Devlin that Dublin does not have that is a relevant factor. If I go down to Cork, I can listen to Red FM or other Cork radio stations. I can stray into Kerry and Clare, etc. I can get my local newspapers.

However, I do not have the equivalent in Dublin. Many people in rural Ireland say the national newspapers are the Dublin newspapers, but if you look at a newspaper like the Irish Examiner, it is a national newspaper but it provides very comprehensive coverage of counties Cork and Kerry and, to a lesser extent, Limerick, Waterford and other counties. The issue is that in Dublin there is not an equivalent of the Irish Examiner. There are small publications like the Dublin Inquirer, but they have a very marginal impact because, I am afraid their circulation is in the low thousands.