Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, profoundly modest as well. However, it goes a little further in providing that in naming an online safety commissioner, it will not prevent other commissioners from also having responsibility for online safety. The core point in all these amendments - we are coming at this from the same perspective - is that as part of the legislation one of the commissioners should have a very specific role and that he or she should be appointed as the online safety commissioner. When the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht engaged with the Australian e-safety commissioner, one of the merits we saw of that office having that title was that there was an individual, a champion, czar or whatever phrase we want to use, who was able to drive this particular agenda.

The amendment that Senator Cassells and I proposed provides that while online safety is the responsibility of the entire commission, one individual is clearly named to lead on this. In the recruitment for the commission through the Public Appointments Service, one of the requirements should be to recruit somebody with expertise in the area of online safety, harm reduction, specifically looking at the safety of children online. When the seven members of the commission are appointed, the idea would be that they would come from different backgrounds with some of them having specific experience in broadcasting and one looking at regulatory law or whatever. In the composition of the commission, it is ideal to have people from different backgrounds. The legislation should specifically identify one of the commissioners as the online safety commissioner and for him or her to champion it.

I will await the Minister's response. It is core. Certainly, whether it is dealt with today or on Report Stage, I do not believe this legislation can progress unless an online safety commissioner is named very clearly within it.