Today is the Taoiseach's first day answering questions in this House in his new role. I wish him well personally. It is my first opportunity to do so.

I thank the Deputy.

I want to raise with the Taoiseach an issue that is a real concern around the mental health of young people and children. Paul Gordon of the National Youth Council of Ireland has said today that millennials, Generation Z and Generation Alpha may be the first to have worse outcomes than their parents since the foundation of the State. A National Youth Council survey shows that a third of respondents under 30 rarely or never feel optimistic about their future, citing the housing crisis and mental ill health as reasons for this.

I will continue to raise the housing crisis in this House - we know the serious impact it is having on the mental health of young people - but I want to focus on the issue of social media and their detrimental impacts. Tonight an RTÉ "Prime Time" programme will expose how TikTok's algorithm, designed to increase revenues for a private company, is showing content which apparently promotes self-harm and even suicide to children as young as 13. How does the Government propose to address this serious issue? How does it propose to regulate social media companies to ensure that this sort of harmful impact on children is not felt? I am conscious that the Tánaiste, in his speech at the weekend to his party's Ard-Fheis, referred specifically to the detrimental impacts on children's mental health of their being exposed to content through social media. All of us as parents are alarmed about this. What will the Government do about it?

I thank Deputy Bacik for her good wishes. I look forward to working constructively with her in this House. I really appreciate her raising this issue. I will watch the RTÉ documentary very closely this evening because I share the views and concerns that she has echoed and that the Tánaiste echoed at the weekend on the impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of our young people. We now have Coimisiún na Meán established and we have regulations and laws from Europe on digital media. We also have CyberSafeKids, with which the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and the Ministers, Deputies Donnelly and Foley, have engaged. I will ask all relevant Ministers to bring forward an up-to-date position on what more we can do in this space. The Tánaiste's message at the weekend is one I support and, I hope, one we can all support. The companies need to get real on this and get on top of it. If they do not, we need to be ready to act. I have not seen the programme tonight - none of us have - but what I have read about it is deeply harrowing. We will need a response, and I will be back to this House with one.