DUBLIN, Ireland: Taoiseach Micheál Martin asserted during a heated exchange in the Dáil with an opposition TD that Ireland was not "kicking the can" to Europe in investigating the social media platform X.

During Leaders' Questions in the Irish parliament on February 4, People Before Profit lawmaker Paul Murphy said the social media platform X had become a place where child sexual abuse images and abusive images of women were being widely produced and shared.

He said creating sexual images of people without consent, including deepfakes, has been a crime for six years, but claimed the Government was ignoring the problem when it comes to big technology companies.

Martin strongly criticized Murphy's comments, calling them disgraceful and accusing him of acting morally superior.

The European Commission is investigating X after reports that its AI tool, Grok, was used to create and spread child abuse material and private sexual images without consent. Ireland's media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, is helping with the European investigation but has decided not to start its own separate inquiry under Ireland's Online Safety Code.

Murphy said he had recently told a parliamentary committee that people in Ireland could still use a VPN to create partly undressed images of others on X. Referring to French authorities searching X's offices in Paris, he asked whether any criminal investigation into the company was happening in Ireland.

Martin replied that Murphy was being dishonest and unfair about the Government's position. He said Irish police were already investigating around 200 complaints related to suspected child abuse material. He also said that the European Commission is responsible for regulating very large online platforms like X, and it was wrong to suggest the Government was simply passing the responsibility to Brussels.

Murphy said he was not accusing the Government of supporting abuse, but of avoiding intense action because it did not want to damage its relationship with big tech companies or risk investment.

Martin rejected this, calling it a shameful claim. He angrily said that no one in parliament had moral superiority and that everyone there agreed on fighting the creation and spread of child abuse material.

Murphy then asked whether investigations were targeting the company itself or only individual users. He argued that Ireland could take criminal action against X under existing laws and did not need to wait for the European Commission, as France was already doing.

Martin responded that the police were applying all relevant laws to ensure full accountability.

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