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

While also addressing a number of amendments tabled by Senators on Committee Stage, the Government amendments in this group give effect to my commitment to explicitly provide for the role of online safety commissioner in the Bill. This was a key recommendation of the report of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media in its report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Bill.

In this regard, amendment No. 6 provides for relevant definitions for the operation of this provision, including a definition of the online safety commissioner. Amendment No. 37ensures that the online safety functions of coimisiún na meán are generally delegated to any designated online safety commissioners.Amendment No. 44 provides that "One or more of the Commissioners shall be designated in writing by the Minister on the recommendation of the Public Appointments Service as an Online Safety Commissioner". It is important to recognise that the online safety functions of coimisiún na meán are likely to expand significantly over time and, as such, it is important to provide that more than one commissioner can be designated as an online safety commissioner. In this regard, it is intended that the Public Appointments Service will commence a public recruitment campaign for the role of online safety commissioner in the coming weeks. Amendments Nos. 36, 38, 39, 45 to 50, inclusive, and 53 are all consequential amendments to provide for updates to the numbering of subsections subsequent to those inserted by amendments Nos. 37 and 44. I recognise the intentions of amendments Nos. 40 and 51, proposed by Senators Higgins and Ruane and Senators Malcolm Byrne and Cassells, respectively, but note the issue they raise is addressed by the Government amendments.