Ms Niamh McDonald:

I saw the announcement of that committee this morning. We need immediate action that does not need to go into a committee. The first thing we need is for algorithms to be changed. We need the social media companies just to abide by the standards they have set and for them to have a community responsibility. That does not need to go to a committee. That needs political will and we need it right now. That is what is causing the real-world harms, as we saw in Finglas, Ballymun and Drimnagh with all the misinformation. That does not need to go to a committee.

I get very nervous when I hear word of the Government setting up a committee, no offence to anybody sitting in this room. Is that going to get lost in the ether of Dáil Éireann? I would like to know the terms of reference of that committee, what happens and who is going to be on it. Time after time things go into committees or quangos and nothing gets resolved. We are talking about real-world harms here and the most vulnerable people in our communities and society who are being affected by this. We have the head offices of all the social media companies 2 km down the road. I know we have tax gains and so on but they have a community responsibility to keep our communities safe and to abide by their own rules. The Government has a responsibility to put pressure on them to do that, to keep us safe. That is one of the members' jobs, to keep us safe. Social media companies are not keeping us safe right now. Change the algorithms and get them to abide by the community standards. Then let us talk about a committee. That is what I think.