Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important issue and I acknowledge the Tánaiste's presence in the Chamber. It is ironic that Members are having this debate at all this evening because at the same time, a person is running to be President of America who believes it is okay to insult a massive number of people, that is, those of the Muslim faith. It beggars belief that in a modern, educated society, a person running for high office like that would think it is all right to target a group of people. I thought it was awful and wrong. It shows up some of the problems in society when an educated person like that would make such a statement because the Muslim people who have come to our country have contributed in a great, sound and solid fashion through their work, through having their children here and through being part of our society. The area from which I come was very fortunate over the past 30 years in particular, in that many people came from all over Europe to live, to work and to raise their children. I know of one national school not far from where I live that was being attended by young children of 12 or 13 different nationalities. Every child in that school benefitted from being there because there was such a diversity of cultures, religions and educational backgrounds. It made for a great place of learning.

To turn to the Bill and what it is trying to achieve, people could be critical of it and could state it is not going far enough. Whenever one tries to do something, is it not a good thing that one at least is making a start? We live in an ever-changing world with problems that, because of changes in society, were never experienced in the past and with which our parents or grandparents never had to deal. One hears of the most awful things in the whole world happening with cyber-crimes and all that sort of thing. Those issues never existed before because it simply was not an issue. Legislation must be brought forward and there must be laws to assist people who have a different way of living and to make their lives safer and happier because life is very short for everybody. Our job as legislators is to try to ensure that people, no matter what type of people they are or what type of gender they are or in what way they wish to lead their lives, who want to live out their lives in a way that is different from what might be called the norm can do so in safety and happiness and free from any type of taunting, bullying or interference. An Garda Síochána must be supported and the Tánaiste, as Minister for Justice and Equality, must be supported in her endeavours to ensure the safety and well-being of all types of people, no matter what their particular persuasions.

I will return to the structure of schools and starting off in school. While they do this, it is extremely important that teachers try to make sure that from an early age, if there are differences in young people they are encouraged to be themselves, whatever that means, and are allowed to flourish and to be educated and that there is zero tolerance of any type of bullying. Our schools have come on a great deal and their principals and teachers must be commended on what they have done in respect of changes over the past 20 or 30 years because again, they have lived through an awful change in culture and in society in general and have been obliged to deal with the consequences of that within schools.

They must be strict about ensuring that young people, from an early age, learn that one cannot pick on people because of what they are or what they are like, and that one cannot bully people. Long ago there was no such thing as bullying in the way we know it today. Bullying can take on all sorts of different manifestations and one can be nasty to a person in underhanded ways, and our teachers and principals must try to watch out for that. If zero tolerance can start in school, hopefully, students in later life will behave properly and will not interfere with others.

Coming back to what happens on the Internet, I have grave concerns over the way people can go on the Internet and, using false identities, lure children and twist their minds with unreasonable behaviour. That is a big worry for parents. It is also a big worry for grandparents. Young people, with a telephone inside their pocket, can be subjected to all types of low behaviour by such people who would be out to abuse or mistreat them.

This raises the issue to a wider platform than what we are debating here, that is, the subject of how will we protect our young people from the dangers of the Internet and social media, which should not be tolerated. Members of this House have been victims of that type of loutish behaviour. The funny aspect of it is if one ever goes looking at the profile of those who go on the Internet insulting others one will see that it is done between the hours of 11 o'clock at night and 4 o'clock in the morning. I will tell the Minister that those people are not getting up at 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock the following morning, pulling up their trousers and going out to work. If they were going to work, they would not be up in the middle of the night insulting everybody, particularly women, and saying offensive things and displaying all that type of behaviour. They would not be able to be at it, if they were getting up and going out to work. It is easy for them to be fiddling with their fingers at 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock in the morning, and seeing who will they insult next. I believe the word for it is "trolling", it is something like that.

We have that big problem to deal with and it merits a lot of debate. I do not know how it will be legislated for, but I know that it is in everybody's interests, particularly in the interests of impressionable youngsters and teenagers, that they be protected from the dangers and what is completely uncontrolled. Anybody can go on the Internet. They can hide with total privacy and lure people, and as I say, subject them to all types of badness. I would like to see that being addressed. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity to speak.

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