I thank Deputy O'Reilly for her amendments. The Deputy is the only party to engage with amendments on the Bill. I oppose the amendments. I understand the intention behind them. However, the reference to "person" as a legal term is defined in the Interpretation Act 2005, which provides certain general rules of the interpretation of a particular word. In Part 4 of that Act, entitled "Meaning and Construction of Words and Expressions", it provides that: "Person" shall be read as importing a body corporate (whether a c…

Yes.

That is the legislation, as read. I think the Deputy is trying to make sure that ISPs do not use an individual to avoid-----

The Deputy's amendment could allow them to do that inadvertently.

I thank Deputy O'Reilly. In opposing amendment No. 3, I want to give the Deputy some background. The levy is designed to be cost-recovery in nature and is not revenue generating. It is to recover the costs incurred for the activities undertaken by Coimisiún na Meán and the CCPC in their work in enforcing the digital services regulation or the terrorist content online regulation. The Bill states that the coimisiún must seek to ensure that the amount of the levy is sufficient to meet its expenses, properly incurred. …

No. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is not too far away I am sure.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Éamon Ó Cuív as ucht na díospóireachta seo a thabhairt os ár gcomhair anocht. I do not disagree with anything the Deputy said but I will give him the formal response. As the Deputy knows, and as he has acknowledged, Ireland wants to continue to be a European and digital global leader. Ireland is strongly committed to progressing the digital transformation of our economy. Data centres are necessary infrastructure for many of the services that we now take for granted, including techno…

The Deputy is absolutely right that data centres are an important part of the solution for increasing the supply of sustainable energy. They can transform energy usage through the use of corporate purchase power agreements, through on-site renewables, demand flexibility, battery storage and many other sustainable options and solutions that will reduce the burden on the grid. Our offshore wind industrial strategy recognises the important role of data centres for Ireland. Meeting our offshore renewable energy target,…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time". I am very pleased to bring this Bill before the House today. The Bill amends the Broadcasting Act 2009, as amended by the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, to extend Coimisiún na Meán’s power to raise a levy in section 21 of that Act to cover its new functions under the digital services regulation and the terrorist content online regulation. It does this by introducing two new categories of providers, namely, those that must comply with the digital servi…

I thank Deputy O'Reilly for her clarification and all Deputies for their contributions, which were constructive and, at times, eclectic. I acknowledge the contributions of Deputies Fitzpatrick, Nash and Ó Murchú on PayPal. Our thoughts are with the PayPal workers. I hear their concerns. The Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, shares those concerns and we will reflect them to the Department and engage with Oireachtas representatives from Louth around that. I will come back to the Deputy's offices on that. As we said at th…

MrBeast. The European Commission provided guidance for VLOPs on this in May 2024. It sets out processes for those providers to follow to enable them to achieve the risk mitigation measures in this space. It sets out actions that can be taken before, during and after the election period. Coimisiún na Meán and the Electoral Commission have been engaging closely on this. However, there is no broadcast moratorium as we understand it in the traditional sense for online broadcasting or advertising. Deputy Murphy referred…

I thank the Deputy. Our Department is taking action on three fronts to increase the number of Irish businesses using big data, the cloud and AI. First, we are engaging with experts. I chair the newly refreshed enterprise digital advisory forum, which comprises industry and expert representatives and provides valuable advice and perspectives on how we can best help businesses to digitalise and adopt advanced digital tools, such as AI, data analytics and the cloud. Second is access to funding and support. Funding for…

I agree with the Deputy. We tend to monitor them. We work with the EU so that there is independent monitoring. We are one of the most advanced EU member states in that context. The EU digital economic and society index, known as DESI, published as part of the report on the digital decade, shows that Ireland has a leading position in the EU in terms of SMEs, with a basic level of digital intensity at 85% compared with our target of 90%. Regarding the digitisation of businesses, 22.7% of businesses with more than ten…

Absolutely, but we already are a world-leading digital economy. I want us to stay there and grow that in our indigenous enterprise space. We are there because of policy decisions taken by successive governments to invest in this space. We want to grow it by expanding the confidence of businesses to take the journey. That is why we expanded the trading online voucher and are investing in the portal so that businesses can compare themselves safely to where they need to be on their journey. That is why we are working …

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist. Our Department is the national competent authority with responsibility for export controls, including those relating to defence-related exports and the export of dual-use goods. Controls on the export of dual-use items are administered by my Department in accordance with Regulation No. 2021/821 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which set up an EU regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items. As …

I agree with the Deputy. We are crystal clear that nothing we do will support the war that is under way. That is why we have such rigorous criteria. If the Deputy believes that those criteria have let things slip through, he should let me know and I will absolutely follow up on the matter. Applications for dual-use licences in respect of exports to Israel are assessed rigorously on a case-by-case basis. In addition, the officials in our Department seek real-time geopolitical observations from the Department of Fore…

I assure the Deputy I am not asking him to do my job, nor will I do so. We have a rigorous process. The Deputy is insinuating that said process is allowing things to slip through. If he has backup to that insinuation, he should provide it to us and I will be able to give him relevant and accurate information. We have a rigorous process that involves our Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs in respect of not only Israel but also every market that concerns dual-use exports. A great deal of work goes into …

I am confident in standing over that process. As Ministers in the Department, Deputies Burke and Higgins and I regularly challenge our officials to make sure it is rigorous, particularly in respect of Israel.

I thank the Deputy for his question. I absolutely agree with its premise and his ambition. It is the core ambition of Powering Prosperity: Ireland's Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy, published by our Department last March. The strategy ensures that Ireland maximises the economic benefits associated with our climate and offshore renewable energy, ORE, targets. I commend Deputy Coveney, who led on the strategy as Minister in our Department. The strategy includes 40 targeted actions for implementation in 2024 and 202…

We are very aware of the need for physical infrastructure. We have outlined in the strategy that will be a demonstrator site as well as an offshore wind centre of excellence. There are three marine test centres currently in Ireland, namely the Lir National Ocean Test Facility in Cork, the SmartBay Test Site for marine and renewable energy in Galway and the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site, which is currently under development in our own county of Mayo. We will put the business case in place for a demonstrator site …