The first petition for consideration is petition No. P00021/16 from Mr. Michael Callanan entitled, Investigate circumstances relating to flawed implementation of fishing legislation. The committee initially agreed this petition at its meeting on 22 February. It was agreed to inform the petitioner that the committee is satisfied with the response from the Department in regard to all aspects of the issues raised in this petition, except the decision in regard to one of the cases provided. Therefore, it was agreed to correspond with the Department requesting that it confirm that all 490 successful applicants fully met the qualifying criteria as follows - demonstrated track record in commercial sea fishing by means of pots in the Irish inshore and were not in full-time employment outside of the fishing industry. It is proposed to inform the petitioner that the committee is satisfied with the eligibility criteria of both schemes and how they were administered and to forward a copy of the response from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to the petitioner and to close this petition. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The next petition for consideration is petition No. P000013/17 from Ms Tara O'Sullivan entitled, How to make the new junior certificate exam fairer by adding 30 minutes extra. The petitioner is seeking to have an additional 30 minutes added to the higher level English examination for the junior certificate examination which was scheduled to take place in June 2017. At present, the written examination accounts for 90% of the overall mark and 10% is allocated for continuous classroom based assessment. During the petitioner's appearance before the committee the issues raised were: stakeholders taking ownership of the original complaint by the students; the philosophy underpinning the new junior certificate cycle examination issues, with the official sample papers not being consistent in structure, which, in turn, meant that mock examination papers were not reflective of the final examination; and the marking scheme on the sample papers. The petitioner would like to see the introduction of guidelines on future sample papers for new subjects being introduced to the new junior certificate cycle. The CPSE curriculum should include information on parliamentary committees and there is a potential disconnect between those setting examinations and those sitting them and there is no representation by students on the State Examinations Commission board. The committee's recommendations were that we would correspond with the Department of Education and Skills and the State Examinations Commission, forwarding a copy of the transcript of the meeting with the petitioner, a copy of the presentation provided and request that they address the issues raised during the meeting. It was also recommended that we would invite officials from the Department of Education and Skills to appear once again before the committee with the State Examinations Commission board in early 2018 to provide an update on the issues outlined, and to correspond with the petitioner informing her of the further steps agreed by the committee in regard to the petition and to request her to provide a copy of the sample papers issued to her and a copy of the mock examination papers, if possible.
The final petition for consideration is petition No. P00028/17 from Mr. Kieran McMahon entitled, Stop Bill restricting freedom of speech on the Internet social media. The petitioner is opposing a specific piece of legislation, the contempt of court Bill. The rationale behind the petitioner's opposition is that it is an attack on people's freedom of speech on social media platforms as traditional media differs from social media and should not be treated the same, legally.
The petitioner has created this petition online through change.org. The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Madigan, is the sponsor of this Private Members' Bill, and in response has outlined that the Bill seeks to protect the judicial system from the challenges raised by social media and ensure that everyone gets a fair hearing, and that there should be laws to address the differences between social and traditional media, which is what this Bill aims to address. She also outlined that the Bill, under section 7, seeks to protect freedom of speech, and introduces a number of defences, including innocent publication.
It is proposed to forward a copy of the response from the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Madigan, to the petitioner. In addition we have also suggested that the petitioner correspond and communicate directly with the Minister and that the petitioner is advised as to the timetable of the Private Members' Bill as it arises.
The general point is that there will be legislative challenges for us in adapting our laws to the realities of social media, and that is something that we as a committee wish to note.
