Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators. I am feeling the love in the Chamber today, among Senators themselves anyway.

Taken together, I can see that the proposed amendments seek to provide a legislative underpinning for the position of an online safety commissioner with responsibility for the functions of an comisiúin relating to online safety. That, as Senators have said today, is the core point being addressed in these amendments. Section 8 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, as amended by section 7 of the Bill, provides for the delegation of the performance of some of the functions of an coimisiún to an individual commissioner. As such, there is nothing in the Bill to preclude an coimisiún from delegating the functions relating to online safety set out in Part 8A of the Broadcasting Act, as amended by section 7 of the Bill, to a commissioner who shall be responsible for online safety. Indeed, the delegation of the online safety functions to a dedicated online safety commissioner has actually always been the intention.

As Senators have stated, it was one of the key recommendations of the pre-legislative scrutiny report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. That report recommended an explicit legislative provision for an online safety commissioner within the Bill. This provision was not included in the Bill as initiated in this House but I do intend to provide for it by way of a Government amendment as the Bill passes through the Houses. I am pleased to advise this House that good progress has been made on the drafting of such an amendment in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General. I am conscious of the feeling in the House that a Government amendment addressing this issue should, if time permits, be introduced in the Seanad. Therefore, I propose to introduce a Government amendment on Report Stage in this House explicitly providing for the position of online safety commissioner within the Bill. This would provide the Seanad with sufficient opportunity to debate and scrutinise said amendment.