Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank the Minister of State for coming in to address this issue. I asked if the Minister for housing could provide an update and whether he could possibly relax the rural housing planning guidelines to facilitate more people who wish to build their own homes in rural areas. There is an urgent need to look at these plans and to revise them because there are so many people who genuinely wish to live in the countryside and build their own homes there.

The decisions on these applications are made on the basis of an Act that dates from 2005, which is 20 years ago. The rules were designed for a different era. In their current form, they are overly rigid and no longer serve rural communities or the State in the midst of a national housing crisis. Surely, nothing can be off the table at a time like this. If we are serious about increasing housing supply, we also have to be serious about creating opportunities for people who want to put down roots in rural areas. Since becoming a public representative, I have met countless young couples who are desperately searching for a way out of the housing crisis, families who are trapped in small terraced homes that no longer meet their growing needs and others who are living separately in their childhood bedrooms and who cannot afford to rent because they are saving a deposit to buy a home.

Across rural Ireland, and particularly in County Limerick, there is strong demand from people who want to build their own homes. However, outdated planning policies are preventing them from doing so. My colleagues Councillors Ger Ward, Fergus Kilcoyne, Martin Ryan and Francis Foley recently moved a motion on this topic at a meeting of Limerick County Council. They outlined practical proposals, which I fully endorse and which I will set out for the Minister of State. Their proposals include that the rules relating to ribbon development should be modernised. One of the greatest obstacles is the strict interpretation of the policy relating to ribbon development. In County Limerick, for example, residential development along a rural road is limited to four houses per 250 m. Originally well intentioned, this rule is now applied so rigidly that many local people cannot build on their own land. My councillor colleagues have proposed a practical update to allow up to six houses per 250 m. It is a small adjustment but it would allow more people to build homes.

The councillors have also proposed that ribbon development restrictions be scrapped altogether in respect of areas within 1 km of country towns and villages. That is a practical proposal. I would go further. I am of the view that the local area criterion should also be scrapped for proposals in respect of new home developments within 1 km of a town or village. The local area criterion was introduced to prevent speculative development. Twenty years on, however, our patterns of living, working and shopping have changed dramatically. More people work from home, online shopping means fewer car trips and many rural businesses are struggling with footfall, so edge-of-settlement areas within 1 km of towns and villages are ideal for rural housing. In these locations, if applicants satisfy all other planning criteria, there is no meaningful purpose to having a local area criterion as well.

I wish to put forward a couple of suggestions. The Aire Stáit will indulge me. We should replace the requirement to demonstrate a housing need for people who want to build one-off rural houses. If someone satisfies all other criteria, what difference does it make if you have another home? A new house is being built. Are we not in the game of housing supply? It is great if another home comes onto the rental market. Is that not a good thing?

We should allow landowners who meet the local area criterion to transfer their building options. People who satisfy the local area criterion and have a site should be able to transfer that building option to another person who has the means and wishes to make use of it.

All of these proposals serve one simple objective, namely to make it possible for more people who want to live in rural Ireland to build their own family homes. When will the rural planning guidelines be updated?

I thank Senator Ryan for raising this important matter and giving me an opportunity to update the House on it. The national planning framework, NPF, as revised in April, retains national policy objective, NPO, 24 "to support the sustainable development of rural areas". This NPO makes a clear policy distinction between rural areas under urban influence, that is, those areas within the commuter catchments of cities, towns and centres of employment, where there is a need to facilitate rural housing on the basis of demonstrable economic or social need, on the one hand, and rural areas where population levels may be low or declining and rural housing may be facilitated on the basis of siting and design, on the other.

In order to give further effect to the policies and objectives of the revised NPF, and to provide clarity and consistency - both of which are critically important - within the planning system in the context of how considerations relating to rural housing should be addressed in both development plans and decisions on planning applications, the Government's new housing action plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, contains a commitment to publish a national planning statement in respect of rural housing in the latter half of 2026.

The Senator cited ribbon development in her opening contribution. It is true to say that ribbon development is treated differently in development plans across the country. In the new NPO, we need to see that clarity and consistency of approach, whether it is Donegal, Waterford, Limerick or Dublin.

The national planning statement will replace the current rural housing planning guidelines which date from 2005 and will continue to enable development plans to provide for housing in rural areas. This will be balanced with the need to manage development in certain areas, including areas around cities and larger towns and environmentally sensitive areas.

The development of this new national planning statement is a priority for Government, recognising that, nationally, rural housing continues to be an important component of overall new housing delivery. The vast majority of one-off houses - well in excess of 90% - are built in rural settings. I highlight that, notwithstanding the need for updated rural housing guidance to address issues relating to consistency of policy application, planning permission has been granted for almost 6,000 one-off houses, on average, every year since 2020. One-off houses have comprised 20% of housing completions over the past five years, with an average of 5,200 completed per annum.

Furthermore, my Department is a key participant in the development of the new Our Rural Future policy, which will take effect from 2026. My Department also regularly engages with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht on matters relating to rural areas. In addition, my Department is focused on supporting the provision of the necessary infrastructure to enable housing development across the country, not least in the area of developer-provided infrastructure, on which a memo went to Cabinet a couple of weeks ago, to be able to facilitate development in those smaller population settlements that have not been able to develop over the last number of years.

Before Senator Ryan comes back in, I welcome a group from Scoil Fhursa Boys National School who are guests of Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. I hope they enjoy their visit to Leinster House and I thank them for being here.

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge the fine work that is being done to facilitate a greater number of homes to be developed around the country, and congratulations on the publication of the new housing plan. We look forward to supporting the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Browne, in the coming years, and achieving those goals that we have set in government.

The proposals that I have outlined today are practical small tweaks that can be made in this area of rural housing. I will send them to the Minister of State and the Department for consideration. I am delighted to hear that updated planning guidelines will be brought forward by the end of next year.

We must accept that more new homes need to be built in rural Ireland. As the Minister of State rightly outlined, about 5,000 of these houses are built per annum at present. In my experience of dealing with people who wish to build, there is a much greater demand and we could facilitate, within reason, more new homes to be built in rural Ireland.

The Senator mentioned "within reason" and that is appropriate. I have tried to introduce in the Department a common-sense and practical approach to planning in everything that I have done.

On rural policy, I absolutely will ensure that we continue to support the development of rural one-off housing, as is happening around the country at present, but we must strike a balance. I am from Waterford city and I do not believe that I should be able to go out into mid-County Waterford or west Waterford, buy a greenfield plot of land and build a brand new house. Of course I can go there and take a vacant or derelict property and turn it into my home. Of course there are areas of the country where, by virtue of somebody being born within a certain delineated line, that they are not able to go outside of it, particularly in smaller settlements. These are all the things that are being discussed with my officials at the moment. I want to strike the balance in supporting towns and villages in rural areas while at the same time enabling rural one-off housing, where appropriate, in settings across the country.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach. We have all had the experience of bringing a family member to or attending an accident and emergency unit or hospital where administrative staff scramble to locate files and get files from GPs. There has been some discourse by the Minister, and it is most welcome, around setting up a system of digitised health records for members of the public and patients. We have seen that service in other jurisdictions. I have returned from attending a meeting last week of the North-South Interparliamentary Association in Stormont and the Northern Ireland Executive has moved on digitising records.

I propose we look at beginning by introducing a national children's health record beginning with children born from next year or the year after but whenever the database can be established. The benefits of establishing such a record are immeasurable. The core principle is to create a single national digital record for every child, starting from birth registration. It would involve digitisation connecting all paediatric health data, so vaccinations, growth monitoring, allergies, hospital visits, and visits to GPs and consultants, on a single HSE portal and managed platform. The benefits of this from the point of view of patient safety, GPs and the health services more generally are immeasurable. The system would use existing identifiers such as the individual health identifier and the personal public service number, PPSN, for data consistency and integration. A national health record would also ensure that clinicians and parents can securely access the records of their children, with an audit trail of all activity. It would introduce an emergency break-glass feature that would allow access in trauma or critical care situations, with automatic alerts and reviews.

This could be implemented in three phases, starting with children under 12, adolescents up to 18, and finally full adult integration. Critically and most importantly, because it is operational in other EU jurisdictions, would be bringing the national health record into an open standards system so that it could operate right across the EU.

As I said, the public benefits would be immediate in terms of safety gains in emergency care, parents gaining confidence, and having the convenience of a single, trusted digitised portal that replaces all paper records and fragmented information. A new system would also reduce duplication and ensure fewer unnecessary tests, thus saving time, travel and anxiety for families. A new records system would also enhance the continuity of care. It would support preventative care through timely vaccination reminders and developmental milestone tracking for children. It would empower adolescents gradually by giving them access to their own records. It would also build digital literacy in terms of responsibility for health and improve public health data for vaccination rates, disease surveillance and child well-being research. From the Government's perspective, it would give data and provide invaluable data in terms of the longitudinal monitoring of health tracking throughout the population.

A digitised health record would be a win-win for the health system and the health and well-being of children. From a political point of view, a national health record would do wonders and be an important step forward in ensuring the efficiency and robustness of health services. Such a system has been introduced in other jurisdictions and it is timely that Ireland moves on this as a matter of urgency.

I thank the Senator for raising this important matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health. The Senator has referred to the development of an electronic health record at the new national children’s hospital and the broader digitalisation of patient records under the Digital for Care strategy.

Creating a secure, digital health records system for everyone, not just children, is a transformative opportunity for Ireland. At the core of this effort are the significant investments the Government is making in digital health solutions. These investments will bring lasting benefits over time. Already, our national maternity systems are fully deployed in all of Ireland's largest maternity hospitals. Today, more than 70% of babies born in Ireland have a digital health record.

Our investment in enterprise level electronic health record systems at the new national children’s hospital will result in the hospital itself being born digital.

From day one, every child attending the new hospital will have a digital health record created for them. Their health information will be managed electronically. This means clinicians will have immediate access to accurate and up-to-date information no matter where they are working or where the patient is located. As a result, delays in diagnosis and treatment will be reduced. Repeat tests and wasted time will also be cut. Capturing data in digital form and providing parents with better access to that information will allow them to be more empowered to participate in the care provided to their own child. This is about more than technology; it is about better care, faster decisions and a more co-ordinated journey for children and their parents.

Implementation is complex and involves several critical stages: planning, system selection, customisation, training and deployment. I have been informed that the programme is progressing well and is already quite advanced. The design and configuration phases are complete and detailed system testing is under way. A training programme has been developed and forms an important part of the deployment of the system and the commissioning of the new hospital. After going live, optimisation will continue through 2026 and 2027 to ensure the system delivers maximum benefit.

When complete, this will be the most comprehensive health record deployment in the State, building, as it does, on the successful implementation of the health record systems at the major maternity hospitals, St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, the national forensics hospital and the National Rehabilitation Hospital. The programme at the new national children’s hospital is a flagship component of the new programme designed to enable integrated clinical workflows and support interoperability with other systems, laying the foundation for a truly national digital health record.

Investment in digital health technologies such as the EHR at CHI and the broader Digital for Care programme underpins the delivery of Sláintecare objectives. These initiatives are central to the Government’s commitment to modernise health services and harness digital technologies as a key enabler of reform and improved patient care. The EHR programme at Children’s Health Ireland complements other national initiatives described in Digital for Care such as the national shared care record and the recently launched HSE health app, which provides patients with secure access to their own health information online. Together, these developments form a co-ordinated phased approach to building a fully integrated digital health ecosystem for Ireland. I agree with the Senator that this will be a critical component going forward. As I have said, it is not just about technology. It is about ensuring joined-up thinking as regards health records across the system in order to improve patient outcomes, not just for children but for all patients across the health system.

I really do welcome that update. It is certainly encouraging to see such progress being made. As I said in my opening remarks, it is critically important for the long-term health and well-being of our society, particularly for babies born after this system is up and running. That they will have the opportunity to have their health records online throughout their lives and having that integrated system that is interoperable between European countries is going to be absolutely vital. I welcome the update.

Separately, it is important that Government puts a communication plan in place to communicate to members of the public that this is happening, that it will be transformative, that it will be positive for health outcomes and that it will result in wider societal benefits. As I mentioned, it will also afford the opportunity to look at longitudinal health trends and respond accordingly with health and well-being plans for the wider public. I again thank the Minister of State for delivering that update on behalf of the Minister for Health. I look forward to seeing these proposals being rolled out.

As I have said, the electronic health record is going to be critical in the time ahead to ensure that not just children but patients right across the health system have optimised care to ensure better clinical outcomes. It will allow us to ensure that, no matter where a patient is within the country or, as the Senator suggested, across the European Union, we will have that information. I take on board the Senator's points regarding communication, which I will take back to the Minister for Health. The best way to go about this is to capture children as they are being born and to build the system over time while retrofitting the existing system, in the hope it will all come together at a particular point. Significant work is ongoing in this particular area and it is going to be a critical part of our health system.

I thank the Minister of State for being here. It is important to say that I am not here to diss social media or to be contradictory in giving out so much about it when I use it myself every day. I use social media both personally and professionally. Professionally, it allows me to show what I am doing in my work and to see the concerns of people living in my constituency. People can reach out to politicians like me on social media, which is great. All of that is A1. For the most part, I enjoy using social media, especially when I see something like "Rory's Stories" or "Conor Sketches" appear on my feed. There is nothing like the two lads to give me a break from the norm.

However, as we know, there is a very dark side to social media that I strongly feel we need protection from, along with support, as users and for our youth. There are negative impacts on mental health, such as anxiety, depression and poor self-esteem. We see the spread of misinformation and harmful content. There are significant privacy risks arising from data breaches and exposure to predators. Other downsides include cyberbullying and exposure to unrealistic social comparators or inappropriate content.

On social media, sensational and derogatory content can spread faster than neutral or positive content. It can be difficulty to pick out verified information from information that has been misconstrued, misrepresented or manipulated. It spreads so fast on social media that it is almost like a virus. I remember having a conversation with a person recently. She was angry about a company that had closed down. In her words, they had made billions but were letting people go. Her source was somebody in the UK who was taking news from Ireland and putting it in her own words. I got the real information and explained it to her. She was shocked that the video she had seen was not true.

A third of all adults in Ireland have mistakenly shared misinformation online and 46% of us admit that misinformation has influenced our opinions or beliefs. Twenty years ago, all of us got our news from the TV or the radio but that figure is now only 46%. Only recently, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, removed an AI-generated deepfake video spreading false information about the presidential election. One of the videos had the appearance of an RTÉ news report on the false claim. There are thousands of cases like this. Social media companies should have robust trust and safety mechanisms in place. They need to respond faster to people who report. They need to check the facts are correct. One of the biggest things they also need to do is to urge users to read articles and not just go by the headlines. Another crucial part is broadcasting the real data the information is based on because sometimes you will go in and find it is a news article from a few years ago. There needs to be independent audits of these platforms to check their users are being treated with respect. Fake businesses online are another issue that catches out many of us in Ireland. Companies pretend to be Irish but they are not.

It is reported that one in four accounts on social media are fake. This worries me, especially in light of personal attacks on people. According to fact checking, one fake account had posted 99,000 times since it was set up in March 2023, meaning it had posted an average of 220 posts every day or once every seven minutes. Politicians like me are targets. I have heard people say that is what we signed up for when we entered public life but that is not what I or any of my colleagues signed up for. We are doing a job to the best of our ability and we are privileged to do so. The last thing I need to be seeing is hateful and disgusting comments. When I chat to people, they commonly say they would not be able to do my job with the stuff I see online but the positives far outweigh the negatives. That is for sure, but I would like to see the hate stop for people like me. While you can block people, you have to read the comments first and we should not be forced to see that. Think of it this way. If you were a waitress in a restaurant serving food to somebody who suddenly starts shouting horrible abuse at you, that person would be banned from the restaurant. The Garda would probably be called and that person would never be let back in again. The same needs to be done for social media accounts.

There is also a significant interplay between the online and offline worlds. Acts of intimidation and harassment occur offline and are then exaggerated online. Unfortunately, I have also had experience of this. It is just not nice.

What has really urged me to speak on all of this is having had my first experience of a presidential election as a politician. I literally could not believe the hate that was spread online.

I thought it reached a new level. I am very worried for the future of our children and what they are going to see. My two kids are almost ten and 11, so they have very few years left before they get phones or are on social media. I dread to think what they will see.

Only seven days ago, a man living in Galway was sent to jail for nine years for the rape of two young girls he met on Snapchat. He groomed the girls on that platform, who were aged 14 and ten. I accept that as parents we have a responsibility to do our best to keep our kids safe online, but we cannot protect them all the time. Our kids deserve protection online. How can the Minister of State reassure us as to what the social media companies are doing to protect people, kids and businesses online?

I thank Senator Nelson Murray for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan.

Disinformation and misinformation are complex issues that can have wide-ranging effects on society and democracy as a whole. I will begin by highlighting the key difference between "disinformation" and "misinformation". While both terms refer to false or misleading content that may cause harm, we refer to "disinformation" as misleading content that is shared with the intention of deceiving others, while "misinformation" is misleading content that is mostly shared in good faith.

In terms of disinformation, it is a serious and complex challenge that requires a whole-of-society approach. This was recognised by the Future of Media Commission when it recommended the development of a national counter disinformation strategy. The strategy was developed by an independently chaired multi-stakeholder working group and was published on 17 April this year.

Due to the complexity of disinformation as a challenge, the strategy aims to connect key stakeholders across multiple sectors and facilitate enhanced co-operation and collaboration in our efforts to counter disinformation. The strategy highlights education in particular as having an important role in giving people the skills to recognise false material and help to prevent its dissemination. Media and digital literacy initiatives should be seen alongside the promotion of public interest information in this regard. One example of such an initiative is the Be Media Smart campaign led by Media Literacy Ireland, which encourages people to stop, think and check that the information they are consuming is reliable. Together, these initiatives can contribute to building resilience in society to the threats posed by this kind of manipulation of our democracy.

The strategy acknowledges the importance of information integrity, and the role to be played by the media and public institutions when it comes to maintaining a healthy information environment. It sets out clear actions to promote trust in the media, as well as supporting media pluralism and freedom. Furthermore, the strategy includes a commitment to strengthen public communications and trust in public institutions.

We need to learn more about disinformation in order to better counter it, so it is to be welcomed that, in line with the programme for Government, €1.1 million in funding was announced in budget 2026 to support media literacy, fact-checking and research initiatives. Legislation and regulation are absolutely vital to minimise the availability of harmful and illegal content, including disinformation. Ireland's emerging online safety framework is designed to address this challenge, and Coimisiún na Meán, as Ireland's new online safety and media regulator, is at the heart of that framework. It was established under the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act. The OSMR Act is one of three main elements of the framework, alongside the EU Digital Services Act, under which an coimisiún is Ireland's digital services co-ordinator, and the EU terrorist content online regulation, under which an coimisiún is a competent authority.

As Ireland's digital services co-ordinator under the Digital Services Act, Coimisiún na Meán works with the European Commission, which is the lead regulator under the Digital Services Act for the largest platforms, to ensure that they reduce the risk of harm posed to users of their services. Alongside this, since July, it has supported the implementation of the binding code of conduct on disinformation in Ireland.

The European Commission has commenced a range of investigations into various platforms for potential breaches of their regulatory obligations, including around harmful content, dark patterns and other matters.

An coimisiún is raising awareness of its own role in implementing Ireland's online safety framework and of the importance of reporting harmful content. An coimisiún has a youth advisory committee which ensures that the views of young people are also heard. Oide Technology in Education, which operates under the aegis of the Department of Education and Youth, upskills and trains teachers and educators on online safety issues.

Last week, Commissioner McGrath announced details of the EU democracy shield, which includes the establishment of a European centre for democratic resilience. Ireland stands ready to collaborate with other member states and realise the objectives set out in the EU democracy shield.

I do not underestimate the challenges that are ahead, as the Senator rightly pointed out. The online space is a very complex world that has positives but most certainly has negatives too.

I thank the Minister of State very much. I really appreciate him giving me this information. I will refer to a few points in the statement. It is great that funding of €1.1 million was announced in the budget "to support media literacy, fact-checking and research initiatives". That is going down the educational side of things.

The Minister of State also outlined that the "European Commission has commenced a range of investigations". He stated that "Commissioner McGrath announced details of the ... establishment of a European centre for democratic resilience." I very much welcome that measures are commencing and are about to be established, but I am afraid it will be too late for some people when it comes to mental health and well-being. I urge the Government to speak to social media companies. While being educated is definitely 50% of it, the other 50% is the companies' responsibility. If someone working in a restaurant gets abused, the owners would come and get the person out of the restaurant and they would never be allowed back in it again. The owners of social media companies are not protecting us enough and we should strongly urge them to do more when it comes to that space.

I thank the Senator for setting out very eloquently the challenges we face as a society in tackling online disinformation, both in terms of harmful content for our younger population and also in terms of how we consume media and the impacts and influences it can have.

From a personal perspective, I believe we should have age and identity verification on social media. The way people interact online can be very different from how they interact in the public domain. There is no silver bullet in this space. A combination of all of the factors I have outlined in the response from the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, will be required to address this issue.