{"id":502587,"date":"2026-06-16T14:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502587\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T14:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:05:08","slug":"ireland-ready-to-restrict-social-media-for-children-even-without-eu-agreement-minister-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502587\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland ready to restrict social media for children even without EU agreement, Minister says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland is prepared to move ahead with its own restrictions on children\u2019s social media<\/a> use in a move that would be \u201cembarrassing\u201d for the European Union, the Minister for Communications has said. <\/p>\n

Speaking before a Cabinet meeting in Dublin on Tuesday, Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> said he told his European counterparts last week that Ireland would press ahead with national legislation if it did not feel sufficient progress was being made by Brussels during the Irish presidency of the European Union, which begins next month.<\/p>\n

He outlined this position during a meeting of the European Council of Communications Ministers, of which he will assume the chair as part of Ireland\u2019s presidency. <\/p>\n

\u201cI made it very clear … if I didn\u2019t feel there was going to be adequate progress made by the European Union as a collective that I would be bringing proposals to Government on behalf of Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be very embarrassing for the European institutions, that the chair of the European Council of Communications Ministers would feel he was left with no other option but to bring forward his own proposals in his own member state.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said Ireland reserves the right to introduce restrictions along the lines of those proposed by UK prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a>, who is planning to ban children under the age of 16 from social media<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been pressurising the European Union, we have been working with like-minded countries, including France and Spain in particular and Luxembourg, to see if we can get unanimity,\u201d O\u2019Donovan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if we can\u2019t get unanimity in the European Council, we also made very clear last week that we can look to seek a majority because I think the majority of people across Europe are hugely concerned about this and they want to see a way forward\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin earlier struck a more cautious note when arriving for Cabinet. \u201cIf we can get a European Union-wide response, I think that would be a significant step forward because I think there\u2019s strength in unity,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In remarks on his arrival at Government Buildings, Minister for Finance and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said a decision on the future of temporary cuts in fuel excise \u2013 which are dure to expire at the end of July \u2013 would be made in the next two weeks. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll make a decision in the next two weeks or so, I\u2019d like to make a decision by the end of the month,\u201d Harris said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot can happen in the world in two weeks \u2013 a lot can happen in the world in 20 minutes these days,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things are a balance between helping people in the here and now, a balance between making sure that we have the space to make major structural and key issues in the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris gave a guarded welcome to the news of a potential deal to end hostilities between the US and Iran and reopen fully the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest economic intervention we can see in terms of the cost of living is de-escalation of the war in the Middle East,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m encouraged by the talk we hear in relation to a peace agreement, obviously we want to see the detail of that, we\u2019ve had some false dawns in the past but it does seem encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The T\u00e1naiste was also sharply critical of some local authorities<\/a> over their failure to bring any revenue in from the existing derelict sites levy. He is bringing a plan to Cabinet today to enforce a dereliction tax, with an aim to have it in place from 2027. <\/p>\n

He said 11 local authorities had collected no revenue from the existing levy, with some \u201cappalling\u201d in their application of the levy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government has ultimate responsibility for tackling the housing crisis, but to deliver national policy, you require every part of the chain to work and do its part too,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is prepared to move ahead with its own restrictions on children\u2019s social media use in a move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1194,1843,43,6232,70,58],"class_list":["post-502587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-keir-starmer","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-patrick-o-donovan","tag-simon-harris","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}