I also welcome the Bill and thank Sinn Féin for its work in bringing it to the Dáil floor. Repeal is deeply a part of who we are as a party. There are many members and, indeed, elected representatives within our party who were politically mobilised and activated by their experience in repeal and who feel passionately about the full implementation of the repeal movement and what it means for women and reproductive rights in Ireland. I welcome, most importantly, the opportunity to address what is a legislative gap th…

Increasingly, large amounts of different groups are recommending that toxic algorithms be turned off by default. Most recently, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and sport, of which I am a member, made such a recommendation in our report. I would like to hear the steps the Department is taking to specifically deal with that measure to turn off algorithms.

It is clear that the current legislation and regulatory framework are not working. The Minister of State talked a lot about the obligations on these platforms to allow users to adjust their settings and basically push back against algorithmic profiling and so on, but it is clear that it is not working. There have been multiple US cases recently where we see that the design of these products themselves promotes addiction, and the secret sauce behind all of them is the algorithm. Whatever the Minister of State is des…

As I said, they are not working. I am not proposing a ban on algorithms. What I am saying is that algorithms are the way these products are being made addictive. We are all suffering as a result. They are radicalising people, promoting harmful content and polarising our society. We need to turn them off by default, and turn them off entirely for children. There are no unintended consequences in that regard. It would bring us back to the Internet that we used to enjoy, where we were not constantly bombarded with mat…

I am following up today on the codes of practice for live events which I raised as a topic with the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, in March. I received correspondence which clearly shows confusion between Departments as to who is responsible for the codes of practice for live events. Will the Department support an effort alongside other Departments to close the governance gap and give organisers clarity?

It is incredibly helpful that the Minister of State read that response because anyone listening is going to hear how complex this is. It is complex for me when I am trying to find information from parliamentary questions. We keep getting batted around. We cannot identify the right agency with responsibility for this. Once again, will the Minister of State do some work to clarify this? Events are experiencing difficulty because different, inconsistent approaches are being taken depending on the local authority and t…

The night-time economy task force is under the remit of the Minister of State’s Department. Is that correct?

The Minister of State rattled off even more agencies, which only adds to the complexity people are navigating. Will he, or the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, commit to meet us so that we can thrash this out a little? We have been working with stakeholders in this space, such as the live events association. The Irish Music Rights Organisation, IMRO, has a big interest in this as well. It is not just about the impact on organisations, however. Our young people have had community supports withdrawn. Movements like Give U…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: agrees that: — the State of Israel is committing an ongoing genocide in Gaza, something which both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have publicly acknowledged; — since 7th October, 2023, nearly 75,000 people have been murdered by Israel in Gaza, including more than 20,000 children; — of the more than 170,000 Palestinians who have been injured in Gaza since October 2023, 43,000 have sustained life-changing injuries, including amputations, spinal cord injuries and severe mobility impairments; — a…

I thank everybody for their incredible contributions today. We have heard some really impassioned, very well informed and evidence-based detailed contributions from everybody on these opposition benches, unified in our message for the Minister of State to stop the game. What a shame that those contributions fall not just on deaf ears but there are no ears here as there is barely any representation from the Government. I welcome that the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, has been able to return here to the deba…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on tourism today. I also welcome the information the Minister has provided on the plans in this space and the development that he is pursuing. The points that I want to make do not take away from any of that. I acknowledge the work that is being done but I have some concerns and I am sharing them today in the hope of being helpful to the Minister in the development of what he calls sustainable tourism. The point is that sustainable tourism has to be more than just a phrase. It has…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Like many others I am really disappointed that the Bill has taken this pathway, first, that it has taken so long to get here, despite the Government's electoral commitment and, second, that it is now watered down. Despite what the Minister said in her speech, everybody on the Opposition benches will agree that it is watered down. I will speak first, as the Minister did, to the existing situation and what is going on and then I will get into the nuts and bolts of the …

Earlier, when the Taoiseach spoke about Stop the Game, I think he implied, basically, that sport is not political. I would have a litany of examples to show him that there are many ways in which sports and politics interact and have traditionally done so. What is political is boycott, and we have a proud tradition of boycotting in this country. It is a way of expressing our solidarity with a people who are being inflicted by a brutal regime with a genocide in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon right now. Multiple of t…

We are asking you to advocate-----

Will the Taoiseach allow a free vote?

Has the Taoiseach offered a free vote?

I thank and commend Sinn Féin on bringing forward this motion, which sets out very clearly the mechanisms available to the Government to assist the FAI in making the right decision and, basically, to stop the game. That is what it does. It gives the Government the clear tools that we know will work should it choose to act and should it choose to show leadership. I will talk first about leadership because what we have not seen from this Government is leadership on this issue. Since February, when we knew this was an…

What was it?

I said "the Government" actually.

I just have a few short points to make, so I will not use my full time, just for the benefit of other speakers. I thank the Minister of State for being here in the absence of the media Minister. I welcome the progress of this Bill and I look forward to getting stuck into it on Committee Stage at the media committee. We are at a crucial juncture as to where broadcasting is and where streaming is, all the disruption we have experienced as a society from the Internet, essentially, and the companies that dominate that …