Chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee Alan Kelly has criticised the Taoiseach for making a "minimalistic" effort to get the social media platform X to appear before the Committee.
X declined an invitation to attend a hearing last month to discuss its controversial Grok AI tool.
Mr Kelly asked Micheál Martin during an exchange in the Dáil to intervene in the matter and urge the platform to attend, which Mr Martin said he would do.
The Taoiseach's office subsequently declined to give Mr Kelly a copy of the correspondence that was issued to X.
The email that the Taoiseach's private secretary sent to X has been released to RTÉ News under Freedom of Information.
It is two sentences long, and begins by stating that the email was being written to "draw your attention to an exchange in the Dáil" in relation to an invitation to appear before the Media Committee.
"The Taoiseach undertook to communicate with X supporting the request to participate in that Committee meeting," the email concludes.
Mr Kelly has described the email as a "minimalistic intervention" that just "ticked a box" rather than making "any real effort" to ask X to appear.
Mr Kelly said: "It tells us that the Taoiseach had no real intention of trying to push and help get X before the Committee.
"This is very worrying as Meta, Google and TikTok did come before the Committee and answered questions.
"X not being there wasn't acceptable and certainly was disrespectful to the Committee."
"It really says all we need to know about how seriously the Taoiseach takes online safety," he added.
A spokesperson for the Taoiseach said that, as committed to in the Dáil, Mr Martin followed up on Mr Kelly’s request for X to appear before the Oireachtas Media Committee.
"The European Commission has responsibility for the investigation in respect of Grok, as it is responsible for oversight of very large social media platforms such as X," the spokesperson said.
"This investigation is ongoing, and Coimisiún na Meán is liaising with the Commission on this. The gardaí are also continuing investigations into specific sexual-abuse-related images on Grok.
"The protection of people on social media is a priority, and work continues to protect young people in particular from online harms," the spokesperson added.
