Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil uafás léirithe ag muintir na hUaimhe agus léirithe ag daoine ar fud na tíre faoin ionsaigh ar an mbuachaill a bhí ceithre bliain déag d’aois agus é ag siúl abhaile ón scoil ar an Uaimh inné. Tá ár smaointe leis an ngasúr agus leis an teaghlach ag an phointe seo. Níl áit ar bith inár sochaí don chineál ionsaí seo agus don bhulaíocht den tsórt atá feicthe againn. As a parent of four boys, I, along with everybody else, was utterly disgusted and sickened to the core to see and hear about the unprovoked attack on a young child of 14 years of age as he was walking home from his school in Navan. We can only send out our thoughts and our love to that child at this point in time and hope he makes a recovery, as well as our thoughts and our love to the family as they deal with this trauma. I know that the people of Navan, and indeed people right across the country, are shocked and horrified by this incident. I know the Tánaiste will join with me in condemning this attack and, indeed, the individuals involved.

The young person involved has suffered serious physical injuries and, no doubt, psychological injuries as well. It is every parent's worst nightmare that he or she would see his or her child bullied. It is every parent's worst nightmare that this type of incident or attack would happen, and for his or her child to be physically assaulted. For so many parents, it is just unimaginable. For that matter, it is unimaginable for many parents for their children to be involved in the perpetration of this type of assault. There is no room in our society for this type of behaviour, violence or bullying. I am aware that the Garda is currently undertaking an investigation. My colleague who represents Meath West, Deputy Guirke, has called on anybody with any information to bring that forward to the Garda in order that this issue can be investigated properly and the perpetrators dealt with. I echo his call today.

It is also clear that there is a role for parents and school communities across the island to educate our young people to ensure that incidents like this never happen again and to ensure that our children are protected from all forms of bullying and violence. I urge people to heed the advice of the Garda and not to reshare this video online any further. I believe that the majority of people who have shared the content have done so not out of any malicious intent, but to express their revulsion at the heinous attack on an innocent and defenceless young child. However, we know the sharing of such content can have devastating consequences and impact on the victim, who has already suffered enough. Was it not the intent of those who took the video to actually do that? There is a disturbing rise in young people orchestrating these attacks and filming them for public online consumption. Many have warned that this is leading to a rise in violence on our streets and, indeed, in our communities. It is clear that social media companies are not doing enough to root out this violent content from their platforms. That was very clear over the last 24 hours. Is it not the case that social media companies have a responsibility to ensure that this type of content is speedily removed from their platforms?

At the start of this year, the Government appointed the State's first Online Safety Commissioner. The commissioner's role is to regulate online content to make our children safer online. The shocking incident in Navan is surely an example of the type of content that should be removed from social media platforms. If you take a cursory glance at the website this morning, it shows that the office of the commissioner has not yet devised any online codes, nor can it deal with individual complaints relating to online safety. I appreciate that the commissioner is new in the post, but I ask the Tánaiste, on behalf of everybody here who is very worried that it could be their son or daughter next, when will the office be up and running, and when will it be able to remove online content of this nature immediately?

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