Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé sásta a bheith ag labhairt leis na comhaltaí inniu. Go dtí seo, má bhí rialachán ar bith i gceist, bhí sé déanta ag na comhlachtaí nó na meáin shóisialta iad féin. Ar bhealach tá sé thar am go ndéanfaimid a leithéid.

The members all know how important this Bill is in a range of ways. It is important to our economy in promising to deliver on a modern regulatory system for a crucial business sector. It is important for our society in providing safety and security for people as they seek to benefit from the considerable opportunities provided by the Internet. It is most important, however, for our children. We can all acknowledge how important it is to be able to protect our children from online harm and empower them to deal with the challenges of an online society. I propose a range of amendments in three categories. The first is on foot of issues raised in Seanad Éireann and on which I committed to act. The second is amendments to provide for the individual complaints mechanism and the third is amendments required for technical reasons. The Government approved the amendments on 18 October.

The expert group report on the individual complaints mechanism was published on 20 September. The group ultimately concluded that the complaints mechanism was feasible and, on foot of that, the appropriate amendments have been drafted. The amendments ensure that coimisiún na meán has a legal basis to begin phasing in a robust individual complaints mechanism in the coming years which will initially focus on children and a number of non-offence-specific categories of harmful online content such as cyberbullying.

Another amendment is designed to provide for the inclusion of further forms of offence-specific harmful online content under Schedule 3 of the Bill. This further content relates to the criminal offence of flashing under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. The amendments will allow the online safety commissioner to appropriately deal with online content related to the offence of flashing through systemic regulations. Other important changes are amendments to ensure the inclusion of local broadcasters in the scheme to support professional journalistic practices and to provide clarity on when coimisiún na meán may dismiss certain complaints.

I know that members of the committee have proposed a range of amendments on a range of issues and I look forward to the debate. I intend to bring a number of amendments to the Bill on Report Stage. The first group of amendments will be to section 53, specifically those provisions that relate to the content production scheme. I am conscious that Deputies have proposed their own Committee Stage amendments to section 53, some of which relate to matters that I have been considering for some time. I look forward to discussing them in detail with Deputies and indicating how I will seek to address those issues on Report Stage.

I intend to bring an amendment to provide that coimisiún na meán may make media service codes to promote gender balance on news and current affairs programmes broadcast by broadcasters and made available by providers of audiovisual on-demand media services and promote the broadcasting of musical works that are composed or performed by women in programmes broadcast by providers of sound broadcasting services.

I intend to bring a number of technical amendments to remove references to the obligation of RTÉ and TG4 to maintain the teletext service. There is a sense of urgency to this debate, not least in the form of infringement proceedings pending at EU level, because we are very motivated to formally establish coimisiún na meán and empower and resource it to start its important work. Our debates and discussions since the publication of the Bill in January are really only the beginning. Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí as a gcuid oibre agus an Bille ag déanamh a bhealaigh trí na Dála.