Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and support the Bill. I hope it will be supported unanimously. "Catfishing" is a new term. It is a real issue for a great many people. From anecdotal and newspaper reports, we are all aware of vulnerable people and people who may not be so vulnerable whose money has been taken from them through this process. They believe they have developed a relationship with somebody akin to a romantic relationship or love affair. They give money to somebody to travel to meet them or to assist them in some area. This can result in theft and fraud. Of course, it can also result in great emotional distress for the victim when he or she discovers what has happened. As is rightly pointed out in the section 9A(1)(b), there are two victims here: the person whose identity is stolen and used, and the person at the receiving end. It is a very sinister thing. A person purports to be another person, even taking on a different gender, as has been mentioned. Arising from that, such people extract money, defraud or emotionally distress somebody. They can also destroy a person's reputation or name. This can have implications in many spheres of people's lives. The Bill is a good one in dealing with this issue. There has to be robust fines.

The policing of the Internet and the online space is a new area. We are all well acquainted with defamation law. Those of us who had the privilege of reading a wee bit of law at some time in our lives know that there is very well-developed defamation law in respect of print media. There are provisions as regards slander in normal conversations and libel where words are recorded. There is well-developed legislation in that area but there is not the same for the Internet because it is new uncharted territory. We are working on that area.

Senator O'Loughlin, who is leader of the Irish delegation at the Council of Europe, will be familiar with what I am about to say. I had the privilege of being the rapporteur on a report produced in the council that got a lot of traction. It was on the sexual abuse of young people online through the introduction to pornography, sexual violence and a myriad of other things of these young minds that are not fit to cope with it. No mind should look at these things but those people are particularly vulnerable. Arising from that study, I also found out about another form of fishing on the net, the whole area of inveigling young people into gambling, including illegal gambling. My colleague, Senator Cassells, shares my interest in this area, as does Senator Wall, who has just left us. There is an issue with young people being inveigled - for want of a better term - into online gambling and the whole area of gambling by being given bonus points, credits and wins to get them into various games.

To get back to the essence of this Bill, it is a good development and I congratulate our colleagues, including my colleague to my right, Senator Chambers, on it. As she said, if it has to be amended, so be it. If it has to be further discussed, that is not a problem. It is important to get the legislation on the Statute Book. The concept and principle are good. It is a matter of refining the Bill in legislative terms. We have enough civil servants and legislators to do that effectively.

We are all aware of victims and cases of this happening. We can all picture people who have the potential to be affected. It may be somebody living alone who is vulnerable and lonely at a particularly difficult time in his or her life. Such people may be capable of being lured into this kind of thing. When people are facing certain personal circumstances, they may be lured down this dreadful road, leading to awful issues subsequently. It is therefore important that perpetrators are fined and, as the Bill specifies, imprisoned for up to a year. We need to do whatever it takes to show that we are firm on this and to provide a disincentive to any more of it.

The Bill does not merit much more discussion than that. I hope that it will gain general acceptance and that the Minister and Department will then propose whatever amendments are required, which I hope will also gain general acceptance. It is only a matter of netting these people. It is a worthwhile discussion. Our party expert on catfishing has just arrived in the Chamber. Perhaps he will contribute to the debate. I was only trying to delay proceedings until his expertise could be launched into the debate.