IRELAND—Irish Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte is not yet convinced that David Cameron-style internet porn filters are right for Ireland, but is willing to at least hear arguments why it might be.
"I would be quite happy to take up this point about examining whether the initiative announce by Cameron has merit and can be made to work," he said last week.
His fence-sitting has already been criticized in the local press, but the Irish Sun has also just published a ribald story proclaiming, “RAUNCH queen Tanya Tate is delighted Pat Rabbitte WON’T be making porn blockers mandatory.”
Rabbitte has thus far responded to comments made by Senator Mary O'Brien regarding the “gross” nature of online porn, as well as to support for the plan by National Childline Manager, Margie Roe, by refusing to embrace the censorship plan as it is currently configured.
"The e-commerce directive makes it illegal to compel ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to block material in the fashion that Senator O Brien raises,” he said, adding, "A reasonable an important point and is the first time she’s raised it - nobody in the Senate has ever raised this point with me before.
"We shouldn’t conflate two things,” he continued. “Obnoxious material is already illegal in Ireland (but not in UK) thereafter you are talking about his voluntary code that he will require these family friendly filters to be put in place.
"Most experts,” he concluded, “will say that text savvy young people will be savvy enough to access but they may well have the merits of young people not stumbling across the kind of material that no parent would want them to see."
Ireland is a favored location for large tech companies, including Apple, and also porn conglomerate Manwin, which has set up “a low-tax intellectual property hub” in Dublin.
