Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This amendment arises in respect of the work of the commission, because there is likely to be some work which will be quite specialised. For example, we know that certain online practices, even the use of recommender systems and so forth, may be required to be regulated. As this is a fast-moving area, there may well be a contract of service where the experts who are hired by the commission to inform it in the regulation of a new practice or a new area of content, may have interests in respect of the designated online providers, or others, who are the subject of that regulation. It would be very important that that would be known.

When looking at this, I am not thinking solely of long-term staff or the general staffing of the commission but of where contracts of service are granted in the specialised areas. It would be very important that it would be known if there is a potential conflict of interest. For example, we do not want those who may have been instrumental in creating a problem to end up getting hired on a contract of service to advise the commission on how that problem should be regulated. That is the kind of scenario I was envisaging. I know that at the general level, the conflict of interest issue might not apply to staff but because the measures in the Bill allow for a contract of service, or even short-term contracts of employment, that is where I would have that concern.