Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will pick up from where Deputy Ó Murchú left off. I am sure the Minister of State and the Chair will indulge me in referring to the proposal, or at least the contemplation, of another round of redundancies at PayPal Ireland. Those prospective redundancies will impact on staff who were originally located at the PayPal facility in our home county of Louth, in Dundalk town, and it will also impact on those who work at the operation in Dublin. Many of those who work in Dundalk are now working remotely but they live in our region, in Drogheda or Dundalk, County Louth, or elsewhere.

Regrettably, I have spoken to Jan Eger from PayPal on more occasions than I have spoken to some of my closest friends in recent months. This is the latest in a merry-go-round of redundancies at PayPal. While it consistently reiterates its long-term commitment to Ireland, it is understandable that those of us in public office in the county and, indeed, staff who remain in its employment are sceptical about its long-term commitment to Ireland. This is another stop on the merry-go-round of redundancies at PayPal as part of its global consolidation, as it might call it, but global consolidations have impacts on people's jobs and lives and on communities.

More often than not when I am speaking to executives from firms such as PayPal, I feel as though I almost have to give them an introductory course on the statutory redundancy landscape in Ireland and their legal responsibilities, and remind them that when they enter into a consultation process under the Act and are even contemplating redundancies, information should be shared with those who will be engaged with on the workers' side over the following month to provide them with detailed financial information. Furthermore, there is an onus on the company, as I said to representatives of PayPal yesterday, to work to avoid as many redundancies as possible and to look at alternative cost-saving measures.

We take what large companies tell us at face value when they are contemplating redundancies. That it is the only option; there is no alternative. Companies need to move from the idea of shareholder value to stakeholder value and properly consider the situation in which their staff find themselves. I ask the Minister of State and his colleagues in the Department of enterprise to engage fully with PayPal and not simply take at face value the reasons it provides for contemplating redundancies. IDA Ireland needs to be clear and firm with PayPal about its ongoing commitment to Ireland. With the best will in the world and in good faith, I have no doubt the people I spoke to yesterday are convinced and persuaded PayPal has a future and I hope it has because the company will continue to employ approximately 1,500 people. Deputy Ó Murchú, I or anybody else cannot be blamed for being sceptical about that. Our experience over the last period has taught us to be sceptical. I thank the Acting Chair for his indulgence on this matter, which is separate from the Bill.

This is simple and sensible legislation to make sure the huge companies that control the provision of digital services in this country and around the world foot the bill for their own regulation. The Bill will seek that the functions of Coimisiún na Meán and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission be funded under the Digital Services Act 2024 and EU regulations on terrorist content online through a levy on the providers of online intermediary services and hosting service providers. The Government will find opposition to this move from the industry, as it always does when it comes to increasing and improving the regulatory environment, but it must hold firm.

The EU is being sued by digital media giants Meta and TikTok over similar legislation that would levy these companies in order to fund content moderation on an EU-wide basis. That action is on the basis of which companies pay the levy and which ones escape it. The larger companies are arguing that they are paying a disproportionate amount of the total cost. What the likes of Meta and TikTok are not saying is that they also hold a disproportionate amount of power in the marketplace and have a disproportionate number of human eyes fixed on their content. The implications of this for our society, politics and democracy are there for all to see.

These providers have had it all their own way for too long and have created a wild west on the Internet where anything goes. These all-powerful and over-influential social media companies have to be reined in and it seems to me to be perfectly reasonable that they should foot the bill for that process. They created a mess in the first place and should pay for its clean-up.

The regulation of Internet content has already come up against some opposition from the big players in Ireland. Earlier this year, Coimisiún na Meán named ten video-sharing platforms that would be covered by its new online safety code. Reddit, for example, immediately took legal action when it made the list, claiming it is not a video-sharing platform. While Reddit is text-based, there can be links to video content included on its pages. The courts will make a determination on that but it is an indication the industry is prepared to fight regulation at every turn. The online safety code simply requires providers to protect children from specific types of harmful online material, including cyberbullying and content that promotes eating disorders, self-harm or suicide. Under the code, platforms will also have to prevent the uploading or sharing of a range of illegal content, including incitement to hatred or violence.

We do not need to be reminded of the position adopted by many of the social media companies when it came to the disgraceful riots in Dublin last November. They were not exactly quick off the mark in removing shameful content caused by the actions of the few in the centre of our capital city.

We have only begun to scratch the surface of the problems caused by online harm. The new online safety contact centre operated by Coimisiún na Meán received 108 emails and calls from the victims of online harm in its first week of operation. That was at a time when most people would scarcely have known the new service existed, so these numbers are likely to grow significantly. All that Coimisiún na Meán is tasked with doing in this area is to make sure digital providers simply follow the rules that already exist. I see no reason those affected by harmful content on the Internet should have to pay for its policing. Those who provide a platform for it need to foot the bill or else start to get serious about not allowing harmful content or, let us be clear, illegal content on the platform in the first place.

Coimisiún na Meán has been tasked with critically important work and must be properly funded. These funds should come, in the main, from the industry that has profited from the issues Coimisiún na Meán has been set up to tackle. The days of the wild west on the Internet must be brought to a close and a new frontier opened where the worldwide web is at least as safe a place to be in as any other public space. A level playing field that would clearly identify rules around content can be only a good thing for the industry as well. I hope it will recognise that reality and seek to co-operate with the new structures that govern its conduct instead of resisting them.

The Bill represents a sensible approach to the funding of the regulation of an industry that has gone without regulation for too long. My Labour Party colleagues and I have no difficulty supporting it.

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