Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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701. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 932 of 17 September 2025, if he will list all the domestic and international stakeholders that his Department has engaged since 2022, and continues to engage, in relation to the EU's new chat control legislation, the Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse. [51592/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Government supports the draft Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, as it establishes rules in relation to illegal content and complements it with provisions to address the specific challenges posed by child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.

Since the proposed regulation was published in 2022, my Department has engaged, and continues to engage, with other EU Member States and a wide variety of domestic and international stakeholders. These include relevant Departments and agencies, such as the Data Protection Commission, An Garda Síochána and Coimisiún na Meán.

In addition, the Department has engaged with children’s rights advocacy groups such as Thorn, WeProtect, Hotline.ie, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The Department has also engaged with the relevant service providers including Discord, Dropbox, Google, Match, Meta, Microsoft, Proton, TikTok and Yahoo, who have shared their perspectives on the proposals.

Officials in my Department have also received and responded to a significant volume of correspondence much of which is from organisations and academics, focused on digital privacy rights. While this engagement is too voluminous to list, Department officials have carefully considered the detailed positions set out by all interested parties in formulating Ireland’s position throughout the ongoing process of negotiating this piece of legislation.

Some of the international engagements have taken place with the Justice Attaché in the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union.