An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22
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Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel

Senator Byrne's point on the proliferation of these awful-looking shops the length and breadth of the country was well made. I note in Ennis how a fantastic music shop that we all grew up with is now a vape shop. We need to address this. Perhaps we could have a debate on it at some stage.
Today, the HSE was at the health committee on the matter of vaccines. One of the issues discussed was the misinformation that seemed to be proliferating on social media about vaccines. Last week, I spoke about the treatment of Senator Flynn by the social media platforms and by individuals on those platforms who were let away with it by them. We are a country that prides itself as being at the cutting edge of tech. Nine of the ten leading tech companies in the world have their European headquarters here in Ireland. We should be the solution, and be finding the solution, to this hate speech and misinformation on social media. We have the ability in this country and the intelligence. We have the technological expertise to find a way. We should not be looking to Europe, the United States or other countries to resolve this problem. This problem is one that we can find the solution to. I do not have the solution because I am not a tech expert but the expertise is in this country because we have created so much in the tech world over the years. I urge that some sort of a structure or formula be found whereby we can channel the expertise and the experts in technology in this country to find a solution to these awful problems.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-22