Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will use my time to bring Members up to speed on two reports launched yesterday on which I had the pleasure of working with other Members of this House and the Oireachtas over the past many months prior to the summer recess. The Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media produced its pre-legislative scrutiny report on the online safety and media regulation Bill yesterday. The Bill is an immense piece of legislation to come before the Houses and will place Ireland among the first countries in the world to provide a systematic regulation of online platforms.

The committee engaged in an extensive pre-legislative process. We have called for an individual complaints mechanism for citizens to be established for the big designated online platforms. We have also called for an online safety commissioner to be explicitly included in the legislation, and for children's navigation of online spaces to be protected so as not to render children vulnerable to data profiling or harmful advertisements. This work is crucial to a democratic and pluralistic society. I commend Senators Hoey, Carrigy and Byrne who served on the committee. I thank the Chair, Deputy Smyth. We have also called for a content levy that would help the funding of independent productions in Ireland and other policies that would support the media production sector.

I also had the privilege of serving alongside the Deputy Leader, Senator Chambers, on the forum on a family-friendly and inclusive parliament. It was a privilege to be invited to take part in that by the Ceann Comhairle before the summer recess. I commend former Deputy, Mary Upton, who so ably chaired the committee and Senators Chambers and O'Loughlin, and Deputies Cairns and Richmond for partaking. We did so alongside members of civil society groups, private citizens and business people. We have 51 actions in the report and I encourage all Members to read them. The actions involve: how we include all perspectives when legislating; modelling a family-friendly parliament for the 21st century, affecting the sittings of the House for all Members and staff; online abuse of Members; and staff safety.I encourage Senators to read both of those reports if they get a chance. I hope for their implementation over the coming months and years.