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

I thank the Senator for the amendment. The amendment would require an coimisiún, when undertaking a public consultation on a proposal for a new category of harmful online content, to publish the draft proposal four weeks before the consultation begins and to require that such a consultation should be at least four weeks. I do not propose to accept the amendment as it appears to be overly prescriptive. In the first instance, it would be more usual for a public body to give notice that a public consultation was commencing, rather than that a public consultation would commence within a specified time. I do not see the value in an coimisiún publishing a draft proposal for a new category of content without at the same time or shortly thereafter commencing its consultation period on the proposal. I also do not foresee circumstances where an coimisiún would seek to artificially foreclose or artificially shorten a public consultation.