Results 5,341-5,360 of 8,235 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. 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...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Some of the amendments I am going to discuss later would have potential consequential implications in regard to section 2, so I may bring amendments on Report Stage that will address and reflect the issues that I will be debating in regard to my other amendments on other sections.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 1: In page 4, to delete lines 3 to 9. This amendment would delete section 3(b) of this Bill, which would amend section 34(12A) of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The Government proposes in subsection (12A) the substitution of “an application in respect of the following development shall be deemed not to have required, and not to require, a determination...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I thank the Minister for the clarification because it read as a conflict. That is why I had not sought to remove section 3(a) and section 3(b). Perhaps the Minister will confirm if it is the case that the mechanisms in respect of substitute consent will not be applied in regard to the unauthorised development of land where an EIA or appropriate assessment is required, or is determined to be...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will withdraw the amendment but I reserve the right to bring it back because I would like to be reassured in regard to the question. As the Minister has described it, the legislation does allow that one would not be able to give substitute consent in situations where either an EIA or an appropriate assessment might be required. I want to be very clear on that. However, there is still a...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 3: In page 4, between lines 36 and 37, to insert the following: “(c) the Board shall indicate to the applicant what further actions may be required in light of such a refusal.”,”. This amendment would insert a new paragraph into the proposed new subsection (37L) of the principal Act. It proposes that in situations where the application for a...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 May 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It seems the Minister is correct. In effect, the amendment should be inserted at line 27. It seems to have been placed incorrectly. Effectively, the issue that is being addressed in section 4 is the issuing of refusals, so that is the section where the amendment would properly lie. Nonetheless, it would still be useful at this point, in order that we can go forward as constructively as...