Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

That is the point. The Garda has indicated there are up to 200 complaints and lines of inquiry. We do not interfere with prosecutors in this jurisdiction. We do not interfere with the Garda.
The Deputy has used another phrase, "kicking the can to" Europe. It is another dishonest betrayal of the reality. He knows the legislative framework as well as anybody else. The European Commission is responsible for the very large platforms, including X. It has opened an investigation in collaboration with, and working with, national regulators, in this context Coimisiún na Meán. When we met last week, Coimisiún na Meán gave us a comprehensive presentation on the work it has been doing on this and the degree to which it was co-operating and working with the European Commission, which I believe is essential. This is not about kicking the can.
We all have an obligation in here to lay out for the public the legal frameworks by which we can go after large platforms. There is no toleration of child abuse materials on any platform. There is no attempt by any Government to protect such proliferation of abuse material. After all, it was this House and the then Government in 1998 that brought in very far-seeing legislation in respect of the issue of the generation and dissemination of child abuse material. The 2020 Act is also very comprehensive in its coverage. The Attorney General is quite positive in terms of the depth and breadth of the 2020 Act regarding what it can deal with and what the prosecuting authorities can pursue in respect of that Act pursuant to the sharing of adult material generated on any platform, particularly and specifically the X platform here.
The Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport is meeting his French counterparts today in respect of this issue and will also introduce an age verification tool. Significant work is being done on that, initially on a pilot basis, to inform how we would do that on a nationwide basis. All potential measures are under review in terms of how we deal with social media-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04