Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious that the Minister may table amendments later that come at this matter from a different angle.

Amendment No. 16 sought to ensure that equality and human rights are imbedded at an earlier stage in the powers and functions of the commission. As the Minister will be aware, I tabled multiple amendments to embed equality and human rights, given the public duty to equality and human rights, throughout different aspects of this legislation. I believe that probably one of the best places for equality and human rights to be reflected is at the top level, as that would have a cascading effect on the powers and functions of the commission.The Minister has engaged a little with these issues elsewhere but I still believe it would be beneficial to have them addressed at the top level. There is also the cultural participation issue. That has been addressed but I would still like to see equality and human rights ensconced there.

Similarly, amendment No. 17 seeks to ensure that, as well as dealing with societal and technological change, environmental considerations would be explicitly taken account of in regulatory arrangements. I am very concerned about environmental considerations in this area. It is not just about the content because there are some good provisions later in the Bill around things like the European levy and the European work schemes and environmental content. What I was trying to get at here was environmental considerations. I am thinking of the considerable energy usage attached to certain forms of online activity and the fact that there are choices there in terms of energy-intensive or non energy-intensive options. For example, it takes the equivalent of a few transatlantic flights to train an algorithm. That may have been assigned to one of the commercial communication purposes that are regulated by the Bill. I understand that at the moment, Amazon Web Services is one of the largest users of electricity in the State because of data processing. As information emerges in this area, we are going to have to grapple with the intersection between online regulation and environmental regulation. I had hoped amendment No. 17 would strengthen the hand of the commission in that regard. That is why I will proceed with that amendment. I acknowledge that there are good provisions in the Bill around content but this is about placing environmental considerations along with societal and technological ones. If, for example, we had a period of energy shortages or a real debate around data usage, the commission would have something useful to contribute to that debate.