Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Sinn Féin position has been put forward already. We want to Coimisiún na Meán to be able to fund its own work, but there is frustration at the bypassing of pre-legislative scrutiny in the enterprise, trade and employment committee. Everyone has details on what the issues are with that. I hope the Government will work with the Opposition on amendments so we find the most fit-for-purpose way to ensure funding is provided.

Deputy Gould stated that when talking about broadcasting in general the issue of the TV licence needs to be addressed as soon as possible. We are talking about Coimisiún na Meán, the Digital Services Act and our capacity to engage with the big tech companies. We saw some of the online content during the recent elections. It is fair to say the big tech companies have been disingenuous in saying they are dealing with harmful content. We know the issue with the algorithms, and that they are about making sure we all stay on the platform. The more you stay on the platform, the more likely you are to buy, and the more information is garnered. All of that becomes a useful product. That is well and good, but we have all seen utterly harmful and disgraceful content that is hateful. Sometimes, you will say that is pushed by outside players and negative actors. In some cases, it is pushed by people who have their own issues. There is nothing to stop them getting on a platform and taking a video of a politician or anyone else, or just getting up and spouting whatever nonsense they want without any restraints. The facts do not come into play. If you talk to any of the major tech companies or social media operators they will say that the difficulty with certain content is that while you might not like it, it is not necessarily untruthful.

We have seen a large amount of stuff that is absolutely hateful and inaccurate, and we have seen a large amount of stuff that has a negative impact on regular people's lives and a negative impact on politicians.

Many of us can deal with it, but at times people have filmed incidents outside politicians' houses that have impacted on their families, their neighbours and so on. We need to make sure Coimisiún na Meán and the European Commission, and even An Coimisiún Toghcháin, will have the power to engage with the social media companies but I am not sure we have that toolkit, no matter how it is funded, at this time. As we know, the long-term impact of this could have catastrophic effects for democracy. In the case of people who constantly talk about freedom of speech, it is often just freedom of speech for them and then their right to attack others.

This is having a very negative impact. While this could to some extent be said about all of us as politicians, given we could probably do some of our business, especially online, in a nicer and more collegial way, that is not to say there should not be vociferous debates or that we should not make political points. The fact is there is utterly hateful content and a huge number of bots, and many people will post the most hateful stuff. I have found it amusing at times that people who are really nice in real life can be utterly hateful online, and even when you approach them expecting there to be a major row, they often thank you for coming back to them.

I am talking about something a lot more serious than that, however. I barely engage online and I have not received much of this, but I know that certain people have done across the board and that it is utterly reprehensible. Malevolent, hateful content can fly every which way, and I would love to see a well-funded Coimisiún na Meán and, as I said, An Coimisiún Toghcháin. Again, some of this will have to happen at a governmental level, while other parts will have to happen at European Commission level, but we need to have the toolkit to take to task TikTok and Meta, whether Facebook or Instagram. It will be a very difficult job to take X to task, on the basis of the ethos that seems to obtain there at this time.

There also needs to be a realistic conversation about the impact this has on many impressionable people, including a large proportion of young people. Advertising works. The big firms spend millions upon millions because it works, not because it does not, but the problem is there could be the craziest ideas and all it takes is for a small percentage of people to put them up in hateful content and that package will be just ready to fly. We talk about the broadcasting ban, or moratorium, during elections but everyone at this stage is terrified of content that does not even need to be accurate. It could be utterly crazy, and social media platforms are weaponised such that once the message hits, it is all over the place and by the time it is taken down or retracted, the damage will have been done. This is having a huge impact and we need to have the capacity to deal with these sorts of issues.

Representatives of An Coimisiún Toghcháin and Coimisiún na Meán have appeared before Oireachtas committees and spoken about their really positive interactions with the social media companies, and we have all had interactions with them at meetings of various committees, but I have yet to see an improvement regarding the content we see online. The hateful stuff runs and reaches everywhere. Moreover, I have yet to see the employment of artificial intelligence or the technological capacity of these companies to address these issues. This is serious. There is a health and safety issue, and we all know of people across the board who have been injured or attacked. We are afraid of what could happen and we have seen what has happened to MPs in England and elsewhere. Nevertheless, we have yet to see a tackling of the disinformation, the misinformation and the malign content, and we really need that to happen.

I know it is early days and we need to get right the funding and specifically what we are dealing with here but, beyond that, we need to make sure we have the toolkit that can deal with these companies. We all know how this works with these companies. Unless they are under the cosh and are facing major fines, and unless there is enforcement of this, they are not going to be interested. I understand we are talking about companies that are huge employers and about services we all use ourselves, but there needs to be a comprehensive review of the negative impact that is happening. The companies have a responsibility, and we have a responsibility to ensure they understand what they have to do.

While I have the Minister of State's ear, although I am sure Deputy Nash will also bring this up, I raise the issue of the potential for up to 85 redundancies at PayPal, a tech giant that operates, albeit largely through remote working, in Dundalk and Dublin. There has been a drip-drip of job losses for some time. There needs to be engagement from the Minister of State, the IDA and so on, and there is an onus on the company to ensure the job losses are minimised.

On top of that, there must be more than just words in the context of a commitment to Ireland. I keep getting phone calls, as do all my Oireachtas colleagues in County Louth, when we are told about the commitment but we are also told about job losses. Obviously, we want to make sure the company will survive, but we must provide the supports that are necessary to those who may lose their jobs, and I would like that number to be a lot lower than 85. Both the company and the Department need to do what they can to sell their commitment to the extent that we will not get further phone calls about job losses.

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