Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé ag iarraidh caint. Ní raibh mise ag cur isteach ar na Teachtaí nuair a bhí siadsan ag caint. We are not talking here about the child's right to participate. We are talking about the tech company's right to participate in what the child is doing online. That is the key difference here. This debate has been well rehearsed at this point and it is now being rehearsed on the floor of the Dáil. I do not understand the bitterness in this debate. There are important views on both sides of the debate, including within political parties, but we have to make a call and Fianna Fáil has made a call on the age of 16 as being the best possible approach in this particular case. That is what we are advocating and supporting. There will be a democratic vote in the Dáil. There is a review and children will not be prevented from participating.

The point about setting the age at 16 is that if there is a breach and someone is profiled without parental consent under that age, the penalty is not on the child or the parent but on the tech company. Let us be honest. Tech companies lobbied extremely hard through Chambers Ireland for this particular provision to be reduced to 13. We should also admit that there are some organisations that are very vocal on this issue, whom I am sure are worthy organisations, but they are sponsored by tech companies or some members of their boards of directors are employees of tech companies. We have to take all of those voices and consider them carefully, but that has not been mentioned in the debate and I think it is an important point.

We must protect our children as best we can. We need to keep an eye on the operation of this section, whatever age the Dáil decides to choose today. I will support that, but we must take the most precautionary approach possible to our children and, accordingly, go for what is in the law, namely 16, and not reduce it to 13.

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