I want to raise the issue of the growing levels of hate in Irish society and what steps the Taoiseach's Government can take to address it. This is the hate that led to a deliberate arson attempt on an IPAS facility where women and children were living.

It is the hate that compelled young men to attack two drag queens on the street of the Taoiseach's own city a few weeks ago and which allowed some passers-by to applaud. It is the hate that motivated a group of people to surround a car in Citywest and scream racist abuse at a Ukrainian family, including young children, inside. This is the hate that drove two men to beat another man to death in west Dublin because he was from a different country.

These are no longer isolated incidents. They represent a pattern of targeting vulnerable groups, vulnerable people and people who can be easily scapegoated. Our society has a growing problem with hate. It is not organic. It is not representative of real people. As well as targeting certain groups, it is now often targeting and impinging on our democratic structures. This is beyond Government and Opposition. Every Deputy listening to me here sees the level of hate directed against them online and, too often, in person. The home and family of the Tánaiste have been threatened. The leader of the Opposition's canvassing team was attacked. I welcome the announcement of the investigation by Coimisiún na Meán into X, but I fear that once its conclusions have been reached, and the matter has been litigated in the Irish courts and then the European courts, years will have passed during which the toxicity from bad faith actors will have continued to target minorities and undermine our democratic norms.

The algorithms that drive traffic across social media platforms and deposit videos featuring extreme content in people's feeds are incredibly powerful tools. The inadequacy of the regulation of these algorithms and, in particular, the failure to compel platforms to have these algorithms set at a default off-position have been widely identified by those campaigning for reform in the area as a key driver of hate. Does the Taoiseach accept that there is a risk to social cohesion and to our democratic norms from the unchecked online lies and hate? Does he agree with me that that risk is actually growing? If so, does the Government propose to do more and, in particular, re-examine the adequacy of the regulation of the online algorithms that drive so much of this hatred across platforms?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I agree with him. There is a serious issue facing society which will undermine the cohesion of society in terms of the level of hate out there and the level of hate that is articulated online and, worse, in terms of the actual murder of people and physical attacks, as the Deputy mentioned, on two drag queens in Cork recently, but also the murder of a person because he was from another country - I spoke to the minister from that country at the time in respect of that murder - and in terms of various other attacks. Recently, I met a group of young people who were working with my Department in respect of the child poverty programme. It was a group of teenagers, Irish citizens with different ethnic backgrounds. They spoke about the fear of going into town. In one case, a guy said to me his younger sister was chased home from school because of their ethnic background. There is a very real issue here.

I recently spoke to people involved in the Dublin city business initiative providing supports for people in different communities. A number of employers instanced to me the number very serious assaults on employees because of their ethnic background. These are not isolated cases any more. I believe it is very serious. I met the church leaders recently, all the interfaith groups, and the common issue was the fear of attack. The Indian community suffered significant harassment recently. There is fear there. This is something we did not have to deal with to this extent five years ago. It is above party politics.

I fully agree with the Deputy that the question of the algorithms is an issue. Toxicity is directed at quite a number of politicians. The Deputy was a victim of quite a bit of that when he was a Minister. The Garda does exceptional work in helping politicians and helping people to deal with such attacks. The gardaí involved are very professional and have a great sense of perspective in terms of the various types of threats and incidents that happen. It is at a level that I have never experienced in my life, in terms of the approach to the political world, and it is very serious.

As the Deputy will recall, with the hate crime Act we bought it last year, the last Government got into very choppy waters within the House politically. However, we got it through and the penalties have been substantially increased for hate crimes relating to ethnicity, sexual orientation or whatever.

I call Deputy O'Gorman.

There was a time in the last Dáil when there was a preponderance of opinion that suggested-----

We are very far behind.

-----that hate crime legislation was not needed. We have a real problem.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply and for his recognition of the threat and fear that have been generated in Irish society. It is important to recognise the risks to the democratic norms as well. During the recent presidential election, there was an AI-generated fake video apparently showing Catherine Connolly pulling out of the campaign and there were, of course, the awful slanders that were put out about Jim Gavin. They were seen 700,000 times before Mr. Gavin got to respond. No amount of fact-checking will ever put that genie back into the bottle again. Last year, Coimisiún na Meán published its draft code of conduct which included a regulation of the algorithms that direct the social media platforms. However, when the finalised version was published later in the year, they were omitted. I ask that the Government look at that again because I truly believe that if we are serious about tackling this epidemic of hate in our society that is posing a risk to vulnerable people and to democratic norms, we have to tackle those algorithms.

I certainly will revert to the Government in respect of that and will also ask the relevant Ministers to engage with Coimisiún na Meán on this. It is hate across different sectors. What happened to Citywest was appalling, as was the deliberate attempt to burn out a family in Drogheda. These are new thresholds that are being crossed. Children could have been killed. It was a very lucky escape for children and a family. Someone deliberately tried to burn them, essentially. We have to be extremely conscious of what is happening. In Citywest, the principal of a school spoke afterwards about the impact on children going to school the following day, or not going to school, because of the anxiety generated as a result of the aggression, hostility and hate articulated towards them.