Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agaibh. I thank the witnesses for coming in and for the work YSI does nationally, as well as in the school in Carnew. It is very beneficial that Senator Casey is bringing them in to meet the Minister. That is very useful. I am a fan of YSI. I participated in 2005, which was not today or yesterday. We went to the national showcase and it was a very enjoyable experience. Our project was about a garden of remembrance for people who had died violently. I remember it being as much about what you learn from putting together the proposal and learning to work together as about the project itself. It was probably the first time we had to approach businesses to sponsor items. We were students approaching adults and it was a bit intimidating but people responded very well. One of the things about being a younger politician - I am not sure I am one anymore but I was in the younger generation for a while - is that you get asked questions about being a younger person in politics. People ask why more young people are not interested in politics. My answer to that was always that I did not agree. Politics is not just party politics. Wanting to improve your community is politics. Wanting to have an impact on policy is politics, whether that means getting involved in a community association, a youth club, or projects like this, which are very important in tackling issues around body image and the manipulation of imagery. This is a massive and growing issue, which probably affects this generation more than previous ones and is likely to continue to do so.

My first question is for Ms Collier and Mr. Peak. They spoke about integrating social innovation or youth social innovation into the school system as a whole. What is the current reach in that regard and what is the best method to achieve that aim? Is it curricular change or access to programmes? What way can that be best achieved?

My next question is for Darragh and Annie.

Deputy Ó Cathasaigh has addressed the issue in relation to the Norwegian legislation, which sounds interesting. I imagine that there are other avenues that can be pursued. I can imagine that education is potentially one of those. It occurs to me that tricky thing about some of these issues around manipulation of images is that sometimes, while we can intellectually understand that something has been manipulated, that does not mean that we do not still have an emotional response to it. The two things can happen at the same time.

Awareness will be important in people's education of the online space generally. This includes everything that happens online. It relates to what is real and what is not, as well as what is plausible and what is not. Aside from the legislation, which I intend to look at, as does Deputy Ó Cathasaigh, what other areas of policy change can we in this institution help to address this issue?