Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. It is good to see her here again.

I support the Bill. It will simply permit the identification of people convicted of the homicide of children. Currently, perpetrators can hide behind the child's privacy rights to conceal their identities. The Bill will amend section 252 of the 2001 Act. It will also allow for the identification of people convicted of some other crimes against children where the public interest justifies it. The Minister has brought a very important legislative measure to the Houses and I thank her for bringing it forward.

I also wish to voice my support for the idea that we must look at the media and social media to see if we must also legislate with regard to them, because there appears to be a free-for-all as regards what they can say before, during and after a court case without any respect whatsoever for victims, perpetrators or their families. That is increasingly becoming an issue on social media, regardless of what we say in the Oireachtas or in the Government and, in some instances, what the printed press says. We need to consider legislation whereby, if these types of Bills are passed, there is a consequence for social media and other media that ignore that consideration.

In the past, there have been leaks of young people's identities, even though they had not yet been convicted. I cannot bear to think of what that must do to their families. A person is innocent until proven guilty. The victims should have the right to privacy as well. It is something we have lost in this country. We saw it in Britain for many years, dating back to what happened with Princess Diana and all those disasters. It appears that in this country now the media can do and say what they want, irrespective of truth. If this Bill is passed, we will have to consider legislation to strengthen the controls we will have to put on social media and other media platforms.

I wish the Minister the best of luck.