Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Opposition amendments Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive and amendments Nos. 6 and 24, as Deputy O'Reilly outlined, create a framework for age restrictions on alcohol advertising on the Internet. Like Deputy Donnelly, I fully support the intention of these amendments, as I discussed with Deputy O'Reilly and in the Seanad and as my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, would have said on Committee Stage because one of the primary objectives of this Bill is to delay the initiation of alcohol consumption by children and young people. I wish to be clear that there is no disagreement between myself and Deputy O'Reilly on the intent of what she is trying to achieve.

These amendments propose the creation of an offence if a person advertises or causes to be advertised, an alcohol product on an information society service unless all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that the advertising cannot be viewed by children. An example of what constitutes a reasonable step is whether age verification controls have been used to prevent access by children to an advertisement. My concern with this approach, which will not be news to the Deputy, is that these amendments use the framework of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which is within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten. My officials have previously consulted with that Department and the Department of Justice and Equality on this matter because the issue is an important one. I am informed that the Audiovisual Media Services Directive is a sector-specific directive for television and services that are similar to television and I am informed that the intention of its scope, as would happen with these amendments, to include any audiovisual content on any Internet platform, would cut across several EU directives and other legislation.

In addition to these legal concerns, there is a difficulty with the enforcement of the proposal. For example, if it was introduced for websites hosted in Ireland, advertisers could simply move to websites which are not hosted in Ireland in order to avoid the necessity to comply with these proposed restrictions.

On a practical note, I am unclear as to how effective age verification controls are in terms of their implementation. If it is a matter of clicking a button to confirm that the viewer is aged 18 or over, children may simply be able to click that button and access the alcohol advertising.

I fully support the intention of the amendments and I am very willing to work with colleagues across this House and with colleagues in Government to see how Ireland can endeavour to address this and to play a role in addressing it in Europe but according to the advice available to me, it is likely that European legislation will be necessary to address issues of online platforms due to the cross border nature of the services involved. That is not to say we should not do it, but this vehicle is not the best place for doing so. This issue needs to be addressed at EU level and for that reason, I do not propose to accept these amendments.

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