Online Safety: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-26 ============================================================ Niall Collins (FF), Limerick County I welcome the opportunity to come to the Seanad today. The Government is not opposing the motion. I thank Senators for highlighting the importance of online safety as a policy issue. The motion notes that online safety is a rapidly evolving area of Government policy, with Departments collaborating closely on various related initiatives. Online safety is a priority for the Government and I will outline ongoing cross-departmental efforts to ensure that the people of Ireland can derive the benefits of the Internet while remaining safe online. I am aware that Senators have tabled amendments to the motion. I know these were submitted with the shared goal of improving and enhancing online safety, particularly for children and young people, and the Government shares that objective. However, we cannot accept these amendments. I am confident the issues raised in them are either covered, to one degree or another, by the Government's national digital and AI strategy or, their good intentions notwithstanding, are not in line with that strategy. I am convinced that the strategy represents a good platform for Ireland to move forward on a wide range of issues covered by the strategy, but particularly enhancing and improving online safety, especially for children. There have been a number of significant legislative developments that aim to reduce the availability of illegal and harmful online content. In Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán is firmly established at the heart of our online safety framework, which comprises the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, the EU Digital Services Act and the EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation. With a staff of approximately 300 people, the focus of Coimisiún na Meán is on implementing, supervising and enforcing these legislative obligations and ensuring that designated service providers are compliant with their obligations under the online safety code, which has applied in full since July 2025. Coimisiún na Meán is supported by levies on the entities it regulates, which is important to ensure adequate resources for the regulator in future. We are also aware that the rate at which new technologies are evolving requires that we are agile when it comes to addressing potential issues. A recent case in point is the misuse of X's AI tool, Grok, to generate non-consensual intimate images. The European Commission recently launched a formal investigation into this under the Digital Services Act. Coimisiún na Meán played an important role in the lead-up to the launch of the investigation and will continue to assist the European Commission as its investigation progresses. The Government is currently in the process of implementing domestic legislation to give full effect to the EU AI Act in Ireland. The Act is designed to ensure the development and use of safe, ethical and human-centric AI systems. Good progress has been made. The Government believes that the proportionate risk-based approach taken in the Act is the right one, and that it will provide individuals with safety and fundamental rights while promoting innovation. The use of AI to generate offensive material or to abuse or harass any individual is unacceptable. The sharing of non-consensual intimate images is illegal and the generation of child sexual abuse material is illegal. The Attorney General and the Minister for justice are examining the current established legal framework to ensure it is sufficiently robust to protect people from digital harms like these. Furthermore, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport has asked Coimisiún na Meán to develop an information campaign that will raise the public's awareness of online safety issues and draw people's attention to the potentially criminal nature of certain types of content. The Minister has also requested that Coimisiún na Meán collaborate with the AI advisory council to review and update the taxonomies of online harm and ensure AI-enabled harms are captured. The motion refers to the recently published national digital and AI strategy 2030. This strategy sets out the Government's commitment to working closely with like-minded member states on proposals to restrict social media access for children and young people and notes the Government's preference would be for a decision on the issue of digital age of majority to be taken at a European level. In addition, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an expert panel would be formed to examine these issues and the outputs of that panel would also be important to consider. The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport is working with the Government's Chief Information Officer and his office on an age verification tool as part of the Government's digital wallet being developed using MyGovID. The age verification tool has been developed to support the application of Ireland's online safety code. A pilot of the digital wallet's use for age verification is envisaged, which will be led by the office of the Government's Chief Information Officer. It will run on a voluntary basis over a period of months. The legislative requirements are being examined and it is intended that the experience and results emerging from the pilot will inform the final shape of legislation. It is important to note that it is not intended that the Government's digital wallet will be the only option for platforms to meet their age verification requirements; rather, it will provide a privacy-preserving and secure option that respects users' rights and helps to safeguard children. Ireland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the latter half of this year and it is the Government's intention to make online safety a priority issue. A youth forum will be held in the lead-up to the Presidency, the aim of which will be to give young people the opportunity to share their views on online safety. The digital age of majority will be an issue for discussion at the forum. Ireland will also hold a high-level conference on online safety in September as part of its Presidency at which this issue and the views of young people will feature. Ireland will also host the international AI and digital summit in Dublin on 14 October 2026, which is a flagship event of the EU Presidency. The Senators' motion acknowledges Ireland's position as a leading digital regulatory hub. The Government is committed to ensuring that Ireland fulfils its important role in enforcing digital regulation and to further establish Ireland's position as an EU centre of excellence and leading digital regulatory hub. Ireland is the EU place of main establishment for 15 of the 25 very large online platforms and online search engines, illustrating the State's critical role when it comes to the regulation of online platforms in Europe. We will continue to be a strong voice in Europe, advocating for a balanced, proportionate and coherent regulatory approach, one that fosters innovation and competitiveness while safeguarding fundamental rights. In November 2025, the European Commission published its simplification omnibus package, which includes proposals to simplify rules on AI, data and cyber security incident reporting. Among the proposals, the package seeks to consolidate several data rules into a single, clear and harmonised data framework, the Data Act, and targeted simplification measures to ensure timely, smooth and proportionate implementation of certain provisions of the AI Act. The package, which supports the EU's strategic positioning as the location of choice for trustworthy digital innovation while maintaining a central focus on data privacy and the fundamental rights of citizens, was welcomed by the Government. Crucially, we must continue to strive to maintain safety and civility on the Internet. We must ensure that people, young and old, are equipped with the skills required to derive the benefits of the Internet while remaining safe online. Media literacy education is vital in this regard and Coimisiún na Meán has a statutory obligation to promote media literacy in Ireland. Coimisiún na Meán partners with Media Literacy Ireland on initiatives like the Be Smart campaign, which encourages people to stop, think and check that the information they are consuming is reliable. The Department of Education and Youth also has an important role to play in promoting online safety in schools through curriculum supports and digital citizenship initiatives. Webwise is an initiative of the Department to promote safer, better online use through awareness raising and education initiatives targeting teachers, children, young people and parents. Once again, I thank all the Senators for the opportunity to speak today about online safety and its importance. --- 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/2026-02-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-26