Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Most in this House will agree that, in the words of the Taoiseach, Friday was a good day. The extraordinary vaccination programme and its success led us to where we are. There may be a few twists and turns yet but there is an air of optimism around the country. I know plenty of people who abandoned their plans for dry January over the weekend, after the difficulties that we have had. We have spoken often in this House about hospitality, tourism, the arts, live events and the entertainment sector. It is important that we give our support to them. I ask that we consider replacing the Government advertising campaign, which tells us that restrictions have been lifted, with encouragement to people who are in a position to do so to go out and support their local bars and restaurants and to buy tickets to the theatre or a gig, stating that it is their patriotic duty to do so.

We need to recognise the sacrifices that young people have made, which we have talked about in this House. We now need to give young people their freedoms back, because they have missed out on two formative years of their lives. We have to be conscious, within our education system, that a certain number of young people have been left behind over the last two years. We have to put supports in place to make sure that this does not become a long-term issue. We raised this with the Minister, Deputy Foley, last week.

I have a question about the online safety and media regulation Bill. It will soon come before the House. The Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media recommended, and the Minister accepted, the establishment of an online safety commissioner. We would like to see the introduction of an individual complaints mechanism. The Minister is committed and will recruit the online safety commissioner.With regard to the individual complaints mechanism, she has appointed a panel of six to look at how this mechanism might operate. That in itself is welcome. The Minister has required the panel to report within 90 days. I hope it will look at international models. The Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht wanted it to look at the Australian eSafety Commissioner model, which has been successfully operating for six years.

My worry relates to the terms of reference given to the six persons appointed to the panel. To be honest, in many ways it is being set up with the possibility that the system will fail. The language used includes that the panel is to "consider the scope of such a scheme, taking into account the nature and volume of online content and the overall purpose of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill." While we accept that a threshold must be established, I am concerned that the joint committee was not consulted about the terms of reference for this expert group. I ask the Leader, on behalf of the House, to seek assurances from the Minister that she remains committed to the process.