That is my fault. I steered her wrong.

Yes. Apologies, I had extended the grouping there.

We will come to that issue in a moment. These amendments on the Irish language are important. It is fundamental that we recognise the importance of access to the Irish language and encourage its use by communications media that operate within the State. That is part of that same principle of the positive role underpinning the audiovisual act, which is not just about protection but also about participation. I would have liked if there was an explicit provision in respect of Irish Sign Language. That may be an opport…

I welcome this set of amendments. There are two issues here, namely, the media literacy issue and the question of the wider reach that is being proposed. When we look at it solely through the educational lens, we are perhaps thinking of the educational skills space but we are leaving aside the fact that this online media permeates every single aspect of society and that everybody needs to be skilled in it at every age, regardless of whether this is an area they are going to work in or be skilled in or whether they …

While I am glad that a reference is being made to gambling in the legislation, which was a major concern for us and for Senator Wall, who is not here but pressed this issue, I have concerns. The Minister might address this in her response. While the Department of Justice has a role relating to gambling, I think the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has a role too. I tabled amendments Nos. 80 and 81, which relate to gambling and other speculative financial activities. We will come to t…

Regardless of who it comes from?

Okay. that is fine.

I move amendment No. 40: In page 22, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(2A) Of the members of the Commission, one or more of them shall be designated by the Minister as the Commissioner(s) with responsibility for Online Safety, to be known as the Online Safety Commissioner(s), who shall oversee the regulatory framework for online safety, including, inter alia, through the development of binding online safety codes that set out how regulated online services ought to deal with harmful online content an…

I move amendment No. 41: In page 22, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(3A) In performing their functions under subsection (3), the Public Appointments Service and the Minister shall seek to ensure that the Commission has an appropriate balance of knowledge of, and expertise in, the following: (a) arts and culture; (b) data protection and digital empowerment; (c) online safety and digital regulation; and (d) human rights and public participation.”

These amendments seek to address two sets of concern. One related to membership of the commission, a set of measures to ensure there would be a diversity in the membership which represented the diversity in society. The other concerns were that there would be appropriate skills and an appropriate balance of those skills among those constituting the commission. We highlighted a third issue of gender equality. I have not pressed forward because I recognise that it is quite a small commission so ensuring representatio…

Amendment No. 42 does not set the bar as a hard requirement but rather "endeavour to ensure". There are a number of ways that could be addressed that would not require the advertisement of a position solely to men or women. An endeavour might apply in a situation where there might have been a majority of members of the commission who were of one gender that the Public Appointments Service might ensure that there was gender balance in the names put forward for the next position to be filled. It may be as simple as e…

I move amendment No. 42: In page 22, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(3A) Where recommending to the Minister persons for appointment as members of the Commission, the Service shall endeavour to ensure that among the membership of the Commission there is an equitable balance between men and women.”.

I will be very brief in welcoming the Minister's acceptance of what was a constructive point. The words "effective", "efficient" and "economical" are all doing very different work and bring different considerations to bear. The word "effective" is probably one of the most important. I am really happy that it has been inserted. I thank the Minister for taking that point on board in good faith. What is being done here will strengthen the Bill.

I thank the Minister for taking on board. It is appropriate in terms of amendment No. 62 that such agreements would go before the joint committee. I particularly welcome amendment No. 60, which strengthens our proposal in that we had looked to the strategy being laid before a specific committee. Under the Minister's proposal, it may be laid before such committees. Again, it may be the case that it involves the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, which has done extraordinary work in its pre-l…

I move amendment No. 63: In page 38, line 3, after "data" to insert ", where necessary and proportionate,".

Amendment No. 63 relates to the transferring of data to other bodies. It tries to underscore and specifically reference the necessity and proportionality requirement, which is a key principle of the general data protection regulation, GDPR. The GDPR is referenced elsewhere, but with this amendment I am trying to underscore that in the context of the transfer of data to other bodies. Again, I have some general concerns regarding the transfer of data between bodies. The data retention and transfer legislation may not…

I move amendment No. 73: In page 42, to delete lines 18 to 23. Amendment No. 73 seeks to delete the lines in the Bill which would exempt members of the commission, or those contracted by the commission, from having to make a disclosure of conflict of interest where it relates to the granting of a contract of service or a contract of employment. Is this amendment grouped?

This amendment arises in respect of the work of the commission, because there is likely to be some work which will be quite specialised. For example, we know that certain online practices, even the use of recommender systems and so forth, may be required to be regulated. As this is a fast-moving area, there may well be a contract of service where the experts who are hired by the commission to inform it in the regulation of a new practice or a new area of content, may have interests in respect of the designated onli…

I appreciate that it may need more nuance as an area but I believe it is one that merits some further examination as the Bill proceeds to the Dáil. I will not be pressing this amendment at this time.

I move amendment No. 74: In page 48, line 21, to delete “€2 million” and substitute “€1 million”. Amendment No. 74 looks to change the definition of a "relevant media service provider" as one whose annual sales are greater than €1 million rather than the current provision of €2 million. This is a revised version of a Committee Stage amendment, where I had a threshold of €500,000, which may have been regarded as too low by some, but I believe €1 million is a reasonable threshold. This is me trying to meet halfway in…