Yesterday, the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment discussed the Digital Safety Commissioner Bill, which I proposed. The Bill is supported by the ISPCC, CyberSafeIreland and the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman. Industry bodies were also quite open to the concept yesterday. The Government’s action plan for online safety states that it will implement actions that address many of the same objectives of the Bill. The previous Minister broadly supported the Bill, as does the Fine Gael Chairman of the committee, Deputy Naughton. However, it is still not entirely clear whether the Taoiseach or the new Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Richard Bruton, are in favour of such an office. Online safety is the key children’s safety issue of our time and we need to act. We need a regulator with real powers. Is the Government in favour of this kind of office? Will the Minister answer that question as directly as he can? Will the Government work with me and the committee to ensure that this office is established as soon as possible?

While I am not aware of promised legislation by the Government on this issue, I appreciate the Deputy’s interest and the committee’s interest in the matter. If we are to move from self-regulation to a statutory oversight in this area, we need to make sure that the law is sufficiently effective and robust to meet the challenges all of us want in terms of-----

It is a very simple question. Is the Minister in favour of the office?

The simple answer is that Government legislation is not proposed on the issue.