Ms Niamh Sweeney:

It is very difficult to deal with the issue of language because people have the right to offend, shock and disturb. One of the interesting things that came out of previous hearings, and we would be very much aligned with most of the contributors in this sense, is that pre-emptive measures need to be taken. Professor Connell put it very well when he was discussing what the law can do in this space. He said that there are limits to what the law can achieve. However, pre-emptive measures need to be taken. There has been a huge focus on education programmes, particularly in the discussion with those from Webwise which has a particular remit here. Many of the proposals made by the Law Reform Commission and in the 2014 report by the Internet content governance advisory group, which was formed under the then Minister, Mr. Pat Rabbitte, have focused on the measures that need to be taken around digital citizenship and education in schools. We support all of that. The horse has bolted in many of the cases the Senator described but we are limited in what we can do because people can curse online. That is different.