Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of online safety, a matter that was raised by my colleague, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, yesterday, along with members of Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party.

We all know that, despite the best efforts of their parents, children and teenagers are able to access on the Internet and social media inappropriate material which can have a negative consequence for them, their families and society at large. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, ISPCC, has stated that online safety is the child protection issue of our generation. High-profile cases such as that which has been in the news this week rightly draw the public's attention to this issue. Such cases need to be a call to action. When more and more young people are accessing social media sites, the Internet and different applications, we all have a responsibility but particularly those of us in these Houses, to take action.

Some good work has been done. For example, the action plan for online safety made a positive contribution and it is important to acknowledge that. However, there is other important work that needs to be done. The Digital Safety Commissioner Bill 2017, introduced by my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, in February 2018, received unanimous support in the Dáil. Since then, however, it has been stuck on Committee Stage. That Bill proposes the appointment of a regulator with real powers in a stand-alone office. The proposed commissioner would give meaningful support to the State in its efforts to combat cyberbullying, the prevalence of harmful communication and material, micro-targeting and online abuse. That Bill is supported by the ISPCC, Cybersafe Ireland and the Office of the Ombudsman for Children. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has also indicated his support for the broad thrust of the Bill and has stated that he is in the process of producing his own legislation. As yet, however, neither the heads or a Bill have been published. He indicated that he will draw on the ideas in Teachta Ó Laoghaire's Bill and from other sources.

We heard from Deputy Howlin yesterday that he has ideas on this issue too. I see from press reports this morning that the British model he suggested may be running into some technical problems. All of us in this House have suggestions and ideas about what needs to be done. None of them is necessarily wrong and some complement each other. It does not matter what we call the legislation, who introduces it or who gets the credit for it, what matters is that we need to do this quickly in order to protect our children.

Let us consider two options. We have available to us a Bill that got unanimous support in this House almost a year and a half ago. It is on Committee Stage. The Government could use that process to feed in all the different contributions and strengthen that Bill if needs be. If it is not in favour of doing that, let us convene an all-party committee on online safety, working with everyone and taking on board their ideas, to get a Bill drafted on an inclusive basis and to bring it before the House before the summer recess. We need to work together on this. We have lost far too much time. Will the Tánaiste support either of these options?

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