Yes.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding on my part here. I am not suggesting that the Oireachtas has to oversee every single decision that the commission makes about expenditure on broadcasting contracts and so on. The amendment relates to advancements and yearly budgets. Maybe there is a misunderstanding on my behalf but I am not really following the response from the Minister of State. He said the amendment sought to ensure that the Oireachtas would have oversight of every single budgetary decision that the commissio…

I will look at the amendment in relation to its intention and perhaps its placement within the Bill. When you look at the IHREC I am sure it has to seek contracts in other ways for other things, but yet it seems to have the complete opposite of what is being suggested.

I wish to speak amendment No. 107 in my name. I missed the fact that it is included in this grouping. I have some queries in this regard because the definition made it in without the other definitions that qualify it because they were seen as creating a cost to the State. Yet this amendment allows for the definition of "political purposes". I intend to withdraw this amendment because it does not make sense without changing political ends to political means. I will come back on Report Stage when I figure out how thi…

I move amendment No. 32: In page 22, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “(1A) Not less than 3 members of the Commission shall be women.”. Both amendments are pretty similar and seek to ensure gender parity among the membership of the commission. The Bill, as authored, makes few provisions relating to the membership of the proposed media commission. This amendment seeks to ensure greater gender equality on the commission. A precedent for an amendment of this nature exists in the legislation establishing…

I move amendment No. 33: In page 22, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(2A) Of the members of the Commission, including the chairperson, not less than 2 of them shall be women, and in a case where there are 6 whole-time members, in addition to the chairperson, not less than 3 of them shall be women.”.

As Senators, there are a number of areas that we cannot make proposals on regarding the online safety commissioner mainly relating to the resourcing of the commissioner itself, rather than just the resources for the commission in general. We see an online safety commissioner potentially overseeing a regulatory framework which would include but not be limited to the development of binding online safety codes that set out regulated online services or deal with harmful online content and conduct. My amendments in this…

I move amendment No. 37: In page 22, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(3A) The Minister shall agree with the Public Appointments Service the selection criteria and process to be implemented in respect of the filling of any vacancy on the Commission. These amendments are related. They relate to the make-up of the commission in terms of experience. Again, we lean very heavily on the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 and earlier legislation relating to the make-up of that commission.…

I move amendment No. 38: In page 22, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: (3A) In making recommendations for appointment of persons to the Commission, the Public Appointments Service shall have regard to the need to ensure that the members of the Commission broadly reflect the nature of Irish society and that such persons possess knowledge of, or experience in— (a) matters connected with human rights and equality, and (b) without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (a), matters connected with perso…

I move amendment No. 46: In page 24, lines 24 and 25, to delete “, where the value of the interest exceeds €5,000". The Bill, as it stands, includes arbitrary thresholds with respect to the financial interests that a prospective commissioner may hold in a provider of communications media. To ensure absolute independence, it is preferable that no member of the commission would have a vested interest in the financial well-being of a provider of communications media. This amendment removes the arbitrary threshold of €…

I move amendment No. 47: In page 24, lines 26 and 27, to delete ", where their aggregate value exceeds €13,000".

I move amendment No. 48: In page 24, lines 30 and 31, to delete ", where their aggregate value exceeds €650".

I move amendment No. 53: In page 29, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following: "(6A) All members of a committee established by the Commission shall, for the avoidance of doubt, be subject to the same requirements to disclose interests under section 37.". Amendment No. 53 inserts a subsection providing that, for the avoidance of doubt, members of a committee established by the commission shall be subject to the same obligations to declare interests and recuse themselves from certain deliberations under section…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 8, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “ “political purposes” means any of the following purposes, namely— (a) to promote or oppose, directly or indirectly, the interests of a political party, a political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a representative in the European Parliament, or (b) to present, directly or indirectly, the policies or a particular policy of a political party, a political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas, a repre…

Considering that the Minister is willing to engage on the topic and to do some work to look at my amendments Nos. 2, 101 and 106, I am happy to withdraw amendment No. 2 with the right to resubmit.

There is not a huge amount for me to add in relation to my amendment No. 172. The amendment is pretty much in line with a number of Senator Higgins's amendments, which seek to clear up any vagueness around the definitions of advertising and commercial communications within the Bill. It specifies that the term "advertising" would include commercial communications, that is, that commercial communications would be a subset of advertising. It is unclear in the Bill whether some types of advertising are excluded when co…

Can we speak to the section rather than the amendments that have been ruled out of order?

There are a few parts of section 3 that we will look to come back to with regard to amendments. A number of our amendments were ruled out of order and perhaps the uncoupling of some amendments from others may change that. I will put some of our concerns on the record with regard to section 3. There needs to be a definition of "algorithm". Going back to the Minister's initial comments, the Minister spoke about a jumping-off point in the modernisation and regulation of online safety, yet we have a Bill without any de…

I support Senator Byrne's amendment and the insertion of the term "socio-economic”.

I move amendment No. 24: In page 19, to delete lines 34 to 37 and substitute the following: “(f) encourage research, promote, endorse, evaluate and approve educational initiatives and community awareness programmes and activities, including in the area of online safety, and co-operate for that purpose with educational bodies and community awareness programmes, and otherwise promote public awareness, knowledge and understanding, in relation to matters connected to its functions,”. The purpose of this amendment is to…