Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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To come back to Senator Devine's comments, when I spoke at a child safety online forum at Facebook last year I said we are trying to use 17th century tools to regulate a 21st century technology. It is a question of education in the widest possible sense and exploiting the technological tools we have. We need always to be very conscious of that. We need a legislative framework as well.

To respond to Deputy Rabbitte, approximately 50% of those recommendations are being progressed. There are a wide range of recommendations, for example, regulation of online platforms which will be dealt with through the audiovisual media services directive, AVMS, and those discussions are going on at EU level. That directive will bring in regulation for video sharing platforms such as YouTube, RTÉ Player and so forth, and for on-demand services. At the moment the timeline is that they will be finalised by May, then we will go to public consultation. We have a good idea of how we will structure that but we want to consult on it first.

Approximately 50 of the recommendations concern the transfer of functions, mainly from the Department of Justice and Equality to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Many of the recommendations are valid today. It is natural for a Department to draw line between its role and that of another Department. We must overcome these issues given the seriousness of the subject. That is why four of the six relevant Ministers are here today and why the six Departments are working together on this open policy forum to come forward with an action plan. When the present Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Bruton, was Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, he brought forward an action plan that went right across Government to drive the economy forward. We are now virtually at full employment on foot of that work. We need a similar mechanism to deliver on the objectives which we all have and on which we all agree. The report of this committee will be crucial in developing that action plan and ensuring that all aspects are covered.