Deputy Doherty, please. I call Deputy Kelly.

Yesterday, at the media committee, we had testimony from Gráinne Seoige in relation to her experiences during the general election and subsequently. It was harrowing and I thank her for coming forward. We have all heard of many other cases of what has happened to many people, mostly women, in regard to AI tools and social media companies. In fact, I would call them publishers. They are not platforms; they are actually e-commerce companies. They make money and this is how they make money.

We need to think about how we are going to deal with this. People have come to me and to many others in this Chamber as well. We need robust legislation. The simple fact of the matter is that technology is moving so fast, it is very difficult for any Legislature, including us, to keep up. We in the Labour Party believe there is a lacuna in the law, particularly regarding how AI- or computer-generated sexualised images of adults are being created and then distributed. We have decided as a party we need to bring in legislation to deal with this.

Today, I am publishing the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences (Amendment) Bill 2026. It is basically an update to Coco's Law, which our party brought forward and which a Minister sitting opposite finally got through the Oireachtas. It provides amendments to Coco's Law to change the definition of intimate images to include AI- or computer-generated images. It also creates a new offence of creating such an image of a person without the consent of that person. Third, and crucially, borrowing from law on child sexual abuse, it makes it an offence to knowingly facilitate the generation of such images for the purposes of publication or sharing.

This is critical legislation. It will deal with the e-commerce companies as publishers. Yesterday, the testimony was that when Gráinne Seoige went to the Garda, at the end of all the chasing, gardaí came up against an individual who would not give over their phone. Ms Seoige would have had to look for a court order. How long was that going to take and was it practical? Ultimately, this needs to be dealt with at publisher-e-commerce company level. This legislation deals with the individual but it also deals with the company.

I do not care whether the Government takes this Bill and changes it, improves it or whatever. I am calling on it to engage with the legislation. We do not have time for this to go on and on. I ask that in the coming weeks, working collectively with us and whomever else wants to be involved, we bring into law a change to deal with this lacuna and ensure the publishers - the e-commerce companies - will be dealt with by the law for facilitating such behaviour.

I thank Deputy Kelly for his leadership on this issue. I acknowledge his Bill and thank him for the role the committee he chairs is playing in this regard. I, too, commend Gráinne Seoige on going before the committee. In recent times, what we have seen in relation to Grok and the use of AI to undress and produce nudified images is dehumanising, degrading and disgusting. There absolutely is an onus on all of us in the House - as the Deputy rightly says, it is not a party political issue - to come together to respond. I commit today that the Government absolutely will engage constructively with him on his Bill. My colleagues Deputies Boland, Butterly and Keogh are also producing a Bill on this issue. I am sure all parties in the House are considering how best to grapple with it.

I want to say a couple of things on the record of the House to be helpful in terms of working out where gaps may exist and where there is legal clarity. I acknowledge the huge work done on Coco's Law by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, during her time in the Department of justice. The sharing of non-consensual intimate images and the production and-or sharing of images, whether AI-generated or not, is illegal in Ireland under Coco's Law. The latest figures show around 99 cases in respect of sections 2, 3 or 4 of the Act have been taken between its commencement in 2021 and the end of 2023. We have seen 23 cases prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit Court.

However, the Deputy is right about the technology moving so fast. It was always envisaged, at both domestic and EU level, that we would have to continue to review laws and ensure they keep pace with technology. That is why the Taoiseach and I convened a meeting this week with several Ministers and also with Coimisiún na Meán and with the Attorney General. The Minister for communications, Deputy O'Donovan, working with the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, is committed to bringing proposals forward to the Cabinet within the next few weeks.

I have another suggestion, which I make to be constructive. Under the EU's AI Act, there is a list of prohibited practices. Our own advisory council has suggested that we as a country should seek the amendment of Article 5 of the Act by expanding it to include the prohibition of AI practices that allow users to generate non-consensual intimate images. My understanding is that under Article 112(1) of the Act, the European Commission must carry out an annual assessment of whether the Article 5 prohibited practices list should be amended and to report its finding to both the European Parliament and the Council - in other words, to try to create a mechanism to keep the prohibited list up to date.

Yes, let us work domestically. Yes, let us work to see what legislative changes may be required here in Ireland, and we will work constructively on that. Let us also ask our representatives at European level and, indeed, the Irish Presidency later this year to work to see whether we can amend the AI Act, alongside the work we should and will do in this country to improve our own legislation.

I thank the Tánaiste. I am worried when I hear him talk about the Irish European Presidency. That is five months away but we do not have five weeks. He mentioned the volume of cases. How many will end up going to the very end to a prosecution? We have a situation whereby if we do not bring in legislation, this continuous sexualisation without their consent of women and men and the sharing of those images will continue and will not be prosecuted, unless we act now.

That is a fact. That is why we are bringing this forward. It does not have to be our Bill but ultimately if we do not deal with this in a timely manner people are going to end up suffering. We were given evidence yesterday that since she went forward the amount of times this image has been shared has multiplied. We in the Labour Party are bringing forward this Bill to deal with this once and for all. We cannot have a situation where An Garda Síochána is going around the country trying to chase mobile phones it cannot get its hands on. It is not resource-practical. We need to cut it out at the e-commerce publisher level and this Bill does that. I ask the Government to please work with us to ensure it can be brought in in the coming weeks. I do not care if the Government brings it in or I do but somebody must bring it in.

Just in case there is any confusion I am agreeing with the Deputy in principle entirely that the responsibility here has to be on the company. The way that has been transposed into national legislation has been under the infrastructure of the AI Act. This Government will work constructively with the Deputy, with his party and with his committee on any improvements or changes we can make to Irish legislation. I too do not care where the idea comes from or who has the good idea or the best idea because we all want to do the same thing. What we have seen here is dehumanising, degrading and disgusting. It has had a real, profound impact on many people in the country and across the world. People have been directly impact and there is also the chilling and general disgusting feel people have sensed from the abuse of technology and from AI. We need to act and we will act. The committee hearing yesterday was a useful and important starting point. The recommendations of our AI advisory group are also good. These are the experts in this area. That is why we convened our meeting this week. It is why the Minister is due to report to Government. I will ask the Minister to proactively engage with Deputy Kelly and all the Opposition parties because we need to pull together on this and show Ireland can absolutely lead in innovation but we can also lead in protecting our values, protecting children, protecting women and making sure technology is never abused.