Mr. Ciaran Moore:

I thank Deputy Mythen for his questions. I will deal with the first and third of those questions, and then I will hand the query regarding signposting over to Ms Hamra. She is our policy officer and will be aware of our stance on this matter.

We have had discussions with some of the other people who have looked at the independent complaints mechanism. One key point is that the various kinds of content are very different. For example, if we are talking about child abuse and-or image-based sexual abuse, those are illegal contents and the problem is that such content is not being taken down quickly enough. The content that we deal with, however, is not illegal content that presents harm to specific users. However, one of the things that concerns us regarding a potential complaints mechanism is how such complaints would be acted on and how content would be taken down. I state that because often people posting material about self-harm, for example, or survivors talking about their own suicide attempts, are themselves very vulnerable. We support the proposal, therefore, that there should be a mechanism to manage content online and we think there are different types of such content. However, we also think that any such complaints mechanism must take account of the impact of how it will work and who will take down the material.

The other aspect, and we have talked to several groups about this issue, concerns the scope of such a mechanism and who would be covered by it. It is one thing to say that we can engage with getting material down off Facebook, but some of the content we see tends to be driven into very specific forums. Therefore, it tends to be less visible and perhaps present in less regulated spaces. In that regard, we would be a little concerned about whether it would be possible to get everywhere on the Internet to undertake this type of endeavour and also about the resulting impact. We are supportive of the broad thrust of the arguments being made by the Children's Rights Alliance and other groups, but a great deal of detail is involved when we get to the level of considering differences between legal and illegal content and different websites.

Turning to mental health supports, we believe some basic good practices that we have in place with our volunteers are important. At the core of those is the ability to debrief. I refer to a formal debrief at the end of a duty period. If someone is particularly concerned about something, he or she can then say that and someone will be on hand to talk that through with the person concerned. It is an element of peer support. We understand that a great deal of this work is highly confidential, but we deliver a fully anonymous and confidential helpline. To be able to do that, it is necessary to provide somewhere to allow people to talk about what they have experienced within that confidential sphere. It would not be right for people in that situation to go home and tell others about what had happened to them, but those experiences will sit with the people concerned until they have been able to deal with them.

Some aspects of this type of situation concern the work structure. Training aspects are definitely involved and we give training to a whole range of people who take calls. For example, we talk to the people who take calls for the Dublin Fire Brigade. During the recent lockdown, we also engaged with several other groups that found it difficult and with staff who found it difficult to work from home while receiving these difficult calls. I refer to groups that in the past might have provided more general supports, but that are now interacting with suicidal callers. Much of the training in this regard involves learning how to deal with specific content, learning what the role itself involves and what it is okay to say in that regard. That is where the issue of transferring on something arises.

People are often looking at content of this nature and are shocked by it. It is important that the environment in which those people work is supportive and that they are empowered to take space for themselves for the good of their own mental health and to escalate issues they have identified. I state that because it is often these people who see the problems and we are asking them to clean up the Internet for us. If they are working in an environment where they do not feel that they can report a problem, then that problem will remain and sit with those people. I will hand over to Ms Hamra to address the issue of signposting.