Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party welcomes the Digital Services Bill. We all have to be clear that, as Senator Garvey said, this is giving effect to the EU regulation on digital services. It is specific with regard to establishing the mechanism for the supervision and enforcement of the regulation in this country. In that regard we welcome the Bill. This is the latest chapter in the EU initiative to ensure we have a greater degree of safety online for citizens throughout Europe. In some ways this is a fundamental shift in our relationship with services like the Internet and social media in that it is moving beyond a place where it is the Wild West to a place recognising that the State and the EU have to legislate because of the real potential for harm that is possible in our online space. It is my hope that the EU Digital Services Act will have a transformative impact on how we all consume social media and, in particular, on some of the largest digital platforms.

One of the key concerns I want to raise is the designation of Coimisiún na Meán as the lead competent national authority. I am hugely supportive of the establishment of Coimisiún na Meán, but given that it is up and running for less than a year now, there are serious and fundamental questions with regard to its capacity and its expertise to do the enormous job that it is going to be tasked to do, in particular because Ireland is home to so many intermediary service providers. We are the Europe, Middle East and Africa, EMEA, headquarters for some of the biggest ISPs across the European Union. The challenge that Coimisiún na Meán will have is nothing short of enormous.

We saw the difficulties the Data Protection Commission encountered in this and indeed the reputational issues for this country when the Data Protection Commission was very much under-resourced to do the job it was tasked to do. Thankfully, if belatedly, resources materialised. An enormous effort needs to be put into ensuring Coimisiún na Meán gets off to a good start. It needs significant resourcing to do its job because something like 20 large online platforms are headquartered in this country. When we compare the role Ireland will have in regulating these providers relative to other EU member states, we have an enormous responsibility.

The second concern is that while Coimisiún na Meán has been designated as the national lead competent authority, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, has also been designated responsibility, in particular over the online marketplace. We have a concern that, given the enormousness of the regulatory challenge, this could give rise to logistical and other confusion. The last thing we want to see is anything falling through the net. It is important we put those concerns on the record.

However, in the same vein, we believe in the power and the capacity of the Digital Services Act to bring about a regulatory environment for online providers in a way we previously have not. We will be supporting this Bill. We hope that we have everything put through by 17 February.