EU Ministers yesterday agreed to double spending on a European programme to provide safer use of the Internet for children.
Much of the funding will go to support so-called whistle-blower hotlines aimed at exposing those abusing the system and exploiting children.
The hotlines provide police and other authorities with vital information to curb child trafficking and child pornography.
Hailing the agreement as an important achievement of the Irish presidency of the EU, the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, said: "The decision to allocate €45 million for the Safer Internet Action Plan underpins member-states' commitments to tackling the evil of child pornography.
"Not all member-states were in agreement with today's funding proposal, but after setting out the needs and benefits of the action plan, we were able to secure agreement".
It was explained in Luxembourg, where Mr Ahern chaired the Council of Ministers meeting, that the scope of the EU scheme will be broadened to include new media and anti-spam (junk e-mail) enforcement measures and a scheme to assess the effectiveness of available online filtering technology.