Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is unfortunate to have so little time for such an important debate. I welcome the Minister on his first outing to this House and I thank him for giving up time to allow me to speak about the implementation of the EU directive. As another Senator mentioned, it is a long time in the making. I know that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, has been proactive on the issue since he came into office, and the different legislation the Government has introduced has been mentioned.

I welcome the European Union's willingness to protect children from all forms of sexual abuse and to enhance co-operation through the directive. I will focus my comments on international co-operation. There is no point in trying to reinvent the wheel in every country. There is a need to block and, as Senator Mary Ann O'Brien mentioned, filter systems. Other countries do that and we should all work together. We have seen what Google has to offer through its global database and information exchange systems.

I will meet Commissioner Malmström in Brussels tomorrow to discuss that area as well as trafficking in general. The meeting is in co-operation with the European Parliamentarians Against Human Trafficking, and we will consider child trafficking in particular. We all know how the web is used for that.

I compliment Senator van Turnhout on the trojan work she has done and the report she published yesterday which contains so much information. Senator Hayden mentioned that, to combat the issue, filtering systems prevent Internet users from inadvertently encountering such illegal activities. Of course, the key objective from a law enforcement perspective is to achieve the removal of the sites from the Internet. As we have seen, hotline.ie works but removing only one site in the past few years is not sufficient. Work has to be undertaken and that requires resources. I compliment the Garda on its work and the special unit that has been set up-----