Ms Orla Twomey:

ASAI, as a self-regulatory organisation with a self-regulatory code, recognises it operates within a statutory framework. We welcome having a statutory backstop. Where the section of the code that deals with misleading advertising is concerned, we regard the unfair commercial practices directive and Consumer Protection Act as the statutory backstop. We have a very good working relationship with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, because of that. It nominates people to our complaints committee who adjudicate on complaints. I do not know whether the members saw today that the CCPC issued a report on research it has done on influencer marketing. We will be working with it across several key actions regarding that because it is an area of combined interest. We regard it as one of our key stakeholders and regard ourselves as supportive of some of its aims in this area. Therefore, the statutory backdrop element is very important for us.

The Senator referred to media codes and what is now the Act. It is important to have codes of practice that can be amended if needs be. You do not put all the detailed rules into the legislation because that can be difficult to change. The media codes will be the function of the coimisiún. We envisage our role continuing in regard to the consideration of advertising because, when we are considering and amending our code, we examine what other codes, including those of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and the legislation state. While I do not believe we have to be many steps ahead of the legislation, the idea of self-regulation is around the industry being responsible and going further than hard regulation. I really do not believe it is a case of either–or but of both working together across a range of areas.