Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and thank the Minister of State and his officials for being here.It is technical legislation but important nonetheless. It is important it is done by 17 February to make sure we are in line with our colleagues in the European Union to be able to fight against some of the challenges in the digital world. As Senators Crowe and Byrne mentioned, it is now clear that some of those tech companies and social media companies are not able or certainly are not willing to regulate matters themselves. This needs to be done by states and by the European Union. This Bill does that and Ireland needs to play its role in that. I welcome the Bill. I am sure next week we will have amendments tabled by the Opposition where it can be teased out a bit further. I look forward to that too.