Results 3,121-3,140 of 8,458 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Votáil.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will briefly respond because this was my amendment. I appreciate and accept the bona fides of the Minister. I understand that she intends to address this issue but it would be good if the Government brought its own proposals in respect of it . It is the right of any Member of this House to bring amendments on this. There is a general strong view, shared across the House by both...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 107: In page 51, after line 39, to insert the following: “(7) For the purposes of this section, political purposes mean— (a) promotes or opposes, directly or indirectly, the interests of a political party, a political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a representative in the European Parliament, or (b) presents, directly or...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 108: In page 51, after line 39, to insert the following: “(7) A broadcaster or media service provider shall also comply with any regulations and restrictions which may be set out by the Commission, including through a media service code.”.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 109: In page 52, line 4, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”. Amendment No. 109 would amend section 46N(1) by deleting the word "may" and replacing it with "shall" in connection with the commission making media service codes. This would ensure there is a legislative requirement on the commission to make codes rather than simply giving...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: These amendments are not about how the commission exercises its duties; it is a matter of whether it exercises them. The provisions we are providing would not interfere with the commission's independence with respect to how the media service codes may be made or the standards and practices for complying with relevant sections. It simply suggests that they will. The Minister described them...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 111: In page 52, line 7, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”.

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The amendment is comprehensive and I will speak to two or three of its components. I am hopeful that either the Minister will accept this amendment or will bring some of its components forward on Report Stage. The reason this amendment is important is because the section in which the amendment may be inserted is the media service code section. At the moment we have the very good values,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister has addressed the issue of gender to some extent and indicated her intention to look to those issues. It was useful and positive that she correctly identified that gender quotas are something that can be done and there is a lot of EU legislation in respect of them. That is positive, but on the issue of reporting in regard to music in particular, again, as Senator Warfield says,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 114: In page 52, lines 13 and 14, to delete “that in programme material audiences are protected from anything harmful or offensive, and in particular”. While, in general, there are many areas where we would like to have a more proactive preventive role, we have identified specific areas where there should be prohibitions or restrictions. In some ways,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Whatever resolution or proposal we may come to in respect of amendments Nos. 92 at 93 might need to be reflected or echoed in this section. Those amendments relate to harmful content, whereas this amendment relates to the media code. I imagine a similar solution can be found. I appreciate what the Minister has said. I sympathise with the fact that there need to be measures in this regard,...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 115: In page 52, to delete lines 16 and 17 and substitute the following: “(i) with due sensitivity to the subject matter and the audience,”. I am concerned about how this is framed because there could be a potential mandate for a restriction on equality, rather than supporting it. At the moment, the Bill states, "With due sensitivity to the...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am concerned about what I believe is an excessive reliance on the Broadcasting Act. We need an acknowledgement that we are not dealing with the exact same thing. Simply taking the fact that a previous piece of legislation exists in terms of the 2009 Act, we should legislate for what we know to be the world and its concerns rather than simply following through on measures from a previous...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I accept the subject matter is sexual conduct. I refer to how LGBT rights have been treated in our media and in the media of our neighbouring country. Due sensitivity to the convictions or feelings of the audience is one thing but what has happened is that the convictions of persons who do not really recognise the rights of transgender people have been given an equal footing with the...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 116: In page 52, line 19, after “mental” to insert “, emotional”. This amendment seeks to add the term "emotional" to the list of developmental categories for children which should be respected in regard to making standards and practices on broadcasts depicting gratuitous violence or sexual content, effectively anything that may impair their...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: In that context, I would especially urge the Minister to revisit the convictions point given that those convictions may be read alongside the moral development point. I appreciate the Minister is bound by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. I may reserve the right to find another way to look at perhaps an additional point in regard to protection from emotional harm. However, in a...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I did acknowledge that the debate has been better in Ireland than in other countries. Senator Cassells mentioned persons with a disability. Persons with a disability have found that many people seem to be offended by discussion of their sexual activity, for example. Persons with a disability have really had to push for visibility of their right to have relationships and be sexually active....

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 117: In page 52, line 19, to delete "moral" and substitute "emotional".

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 118: In page 52, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: "(ca) for the avoidance of doubt, in paragraph (c)(ii) sexual conduct shall not be construed to include educational materials which feature discussion of sexual content and seek to provide education on topics such as consent, sexual health and relationships,". This is a caveat to the same section we...

Seanad: Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister very much. In this context I withdraw the amendment and reserve the right to reintroduce it on Report Stage.