Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Dee Ryan (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach Fáilte go léir to the representatives of Ireland South. On behalf of Fianna Fáil, I thank them for their addresses. I look forward to continued engagement as the afternoon progresses. I wish to raise three issues that touch upon contributions some of the MEPs made. The first is the pressing matter of social media accounts and instant messaging platforms, particularly with regard to our young people and our children. The single biggest pressure facing parents today and their greatest worry is the moment they feel compelled to give their child a smartphone. It usually comes after confirmation in sixth class just before they move into first year of secondary school. Parents tell me they do not want to do it yet they feel intense pressure. They fear their child will be the only one without a device, the odd one out in a new school environment and subject to ridicule. At the same time, evidence of harm from social media and instant messaging platforms continues to mount. It includes relentless pure comparison, addictive design and the very real dangers of grooming and sexual abuse, particularly on platforms such as Snapchat, where disappearing messages and private channels make oversight extremely difficult. I welcome the leadership shown through the Digital Services Act and the AI Act. They demonstrate that Europe can regulate powerful technologies in the public interest. I also welcome the European Commission's investigation into Grok and Temu regarding the reported sale of childlike sex dolls but now we must go further. If big tech is today's big tobacco then banning one platform at a time for those under 16 is like tackling vaping one flavour at a time. By the time we regulate one app, three new ones will have appeared. We simply will not be able to keep pace with every new trendy platform, every update and every workaround so I want to put the question to MEPs: Are we focusing on the wrong end of the problem? Instead of chasing platforms, should we not focus on the gateway, which is the hardware itself? Just as we introduced age restrictions on alcohol and cigarettes, should we now seriously consider EU-wide age restrictions on the sale and use of smart and instant messaging-enabled devices for those under 16 in a co-ordinated European approach? In parallel, we should, of course, to continue focus on all the other necessary forms such as turning off recommender systems by default, disabling autoplay and introducing meaningful ID verification to tackle bots as we are doing ourselves here in Ireland or trying to do. My second point concerns regional connectivity and economic competitiveness. As a Senator living in Limerick, I am highly aware of the importance of regional access to the EU marketplace through Shannon Airport and the disadvantage that lack of daily business connectivity from Shannon into the EU market hub places on businesses in the mid-west region. Cynthia Ní Mhurchú mentioned Mario Draghi's report in support of competitiveness and our SMEs across the country. Should we not legislate for or support regional connectivity at an EU level? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18