Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 188:

In page 85, line 24, after “time” where it secondly occurs to insert “and not less than once every three years”.

I will speak to amendments Nos. 188 and 189. Amendment No. 188 proposes to amend section 139N(5), which currently provides that the commission will from time to time review the online safety code, by inserting the provision that the review would happen at least every three years. Earlier in the Bill, it is provided that the commission should respond to societal and technological change. The Minister will be aware that I had identified emerging environmental considerations there. Societal and technological change is moving apace. It would be consistent with the stated intention in the Bill that the commission would be responsive to societal and technological change in the rapidly-evolving online safety space if the online safety codes were reviewed at least every three years.

Amendment No. 189 simply provides that the commission would make a report on the review of the online safety codes available on a website. This is to ensure the process around the review of the codes is as open and transparent as possible and people will be able to see if the issues that they are encountering are being reflected in a review by the commission.