Ms Celene Craig:

I think the Online Safety Media Regulation Bill as it is currently drafted is a very extensive and ambitious piece of legislation. It will obviously be very important to give that time to take effect and be put into place. Based on our past experience, it is very often when you actually start to implement the provisions of legislation that a regulator is best placed to say how that legislation might be tweaked or developed in other ways. Obviously, depending on the recommendations that emerge from the Future of Media Commission, there may well be ways in which its recommendations might be strengthened through legislation but I am sure that is well within the sights of the Minister and her officials.

Beyond that, in terms of regulation of platforms more particularly, we will very likely see the Digital Services Act emerging in the next six to 12 months from Europe. It might be advisable in terms of platform regulation to see how that develops and how that takes shape in law. I think there will almost certainly be the potential for further legislative changes that will be required coming out of that. Indeed it is also likely that changes will come out of the European Media Freedom Act which I referred to earlier, in the context of which political advertising is being looked at. There are a couple of key pieces from Europe that I think will very likely impact the Irish legislative space as well as our own deliberations or decisions that might arise out of the Future of Media Commission report. There will be plenty of food for thought in terms of legislative changes. I do not think there is anything more immediate than that. As I said, I think it is important that the Online Safety Media Regulation Bill gets time to bed down and that the regulatory framework gets time to get up and running effectively. It would be very important to ensure that the legislation is not in any way undermined. It is an extensive piece of legislation and it has significant implications so it is important to give that some time to bed in.