Results 3,081-3,100 of 8,445 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 178: In page 82, line 28, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”. We do not need to elaborate because it is the same principle again. The purpose of this Bill is not to just give a lot of power to the commission but it is to regulate and ensure there is regulation of the online media space and the provision of online safety. The...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 179: In page 82, between lines 39 and 40, to insert the following: “(4A) When preparing such codes referred to in subsection (1), the Commission shall have due regard to section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Web Accessibility Directive (Directive...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 180: In page 82, between lines 39 and 40, to insert the following: “(4A) In preparing such codes referred to in subsection (1), the Commission shall consult with appropriate persons with relevant expertise in human rights and digital public participation.”

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 183: In page 83, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “Online safety codes: public health of children 139L. (1) Without prejudice to section 139K, in the case of a designated online service which incorporates advertisements or commercial communications, the Commission shall ensure that an online safety code in respect of that service shall...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 183a: In page 83, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: "Online safety codes: disinformation 139L.(1) Without prejudice to section 139K, the Commission shall ensure that an online safety code in respect of a designated online service shall provide that risks of harm arising from the spread of disinformation are minimised. (2) Online safety codes as...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: While I understand that the digital services directive will be coming through, the Tánaiste and officials from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment are looking at this from one perspective, namely, regarding services and digital services. The Minister, however, has the capacity to look at from another angle, in much the same way as she mentioned that her colleague would be...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No. I am happy to hear that the Minister is involved in that process because very different expertise is available in the two Departments.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: In that context, I will withdraw the amendment.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 184: In page 84, line 13, to delete “relates to content that falls within” and substitute “is necessary and proportionate for an investigation or prosecution in relation to”. This amendment seeks to embed a GDPR-like provision around necessity and proportionality in this legislation to ensure we do not have a slightly wider framing. The...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will come to this issue in amendment No. 185.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is the same suite of issues.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Amendment No. 185 concerns "encryption backdoors" or "scanning” and so on. I suggest that we put in the appropriate language of necessity and proportionality to ensure that we do not inadvertently create a context whereby this clause on safety codes could be part of inappropriately wide surveillance.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I disagree. I am not saying that an coimisiúin needs to do the investigations or prosecutions; I am saying that in providing codes, for example, it should not provide that regulation allows for large-scale scanning. That is why the necessity and proportionality part is appropriate because the coimisiún puts in the online safety code and then later very considerable powers are...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 185: In page 84, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following: “(5A) An online safety code as defined in subsection (5) in respect of an interpersonal communications service or a private online storage service shall prohibit the use of encryption backdoors or client-side scanning.”. The amendment concerns a similar and related issue relating to an...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I accept the point made by the Minister. There are situations where it may be allowed but there are also situations that the amendment tries to address, which is around, for example, State access to encryption backdoors. The Minister gave the example of videoconferencing and that is an example of how we are straying into the area of the digital services directive. Is videoconferencing...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I wish to withdraw the amendment but hope to table an amendment to address the issue.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 186: In page 84, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following: “(5A) Services defined under subsection (5) shall not be deemed to be designated online services until such date as set by the Minister following the transposition into Irish law of the European Digital Services Act.”. The amendment deals with the same issue. It is probably one of the...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister for indicating that she will reflect. This amendment might allow us to proceed in terms of the delivery of the audiovisual media services directive, which everybody wants to do, and would give the scaffolding required by the Minister. It would, perhaps, allow us to avoid an unfortunate and unintended situation whereby we may have an online safety code that ends up being...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the witnesses for attending. There are lots of questions that I want to ask. It is very hard to decide where to go. In terms of the future, there seems to be a mandate for change. We heard from people who have been involved in the assembly that the citizens were really open to a reimagining of care. They were open not just to investing more in care, but doing it very differently....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (26 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yes. I have just a couple. I wish to pick up on where the conversation left off. If any of the witnesses have further thoughts on the Constitution element, we would be very interested in hearing them. We have examined the constitutional issues a lot from a legal perspective but, of course, they have significant implications for social policy, legislation and the kinds of measures put in...