Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media

General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. John O'Driscoll:

Obviously, at the same time we have to ensure that those who are investigating take every step within their remit to bring about a situation where the contact is made in an appropriate way with the company involved and the requests that are appropriate in terms of taking down information from their servers are done as expeditiously as possible.

Unfortunately, it has to be done by us within a legal framework and, as the Chairman said, that can take time. In some investigations, that will take longer than others. We endeavour to commence the process as expeditiously as possible so that we do not contribute to any delay. Investigations vary in their complexity and resolution is reached more quickly in some cases than in others. We hope that as we become better and more experienced in dealing with these complex investigations, the desired result will be achieved more speedily as time progresses.