James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and the Minister. I had not had a chance to review the figures. In his opening remarks, the Minister said that the National Cyber Security Centre is to be strengthened, which is very welcome. On the Channel 4 documentary on Monday night, the UK Information Commissioner, whose office has a role slightly similar to that of the centre, said she was unresourced to tackle cybercrime, social media issues, etc. She had to talk about getting a warrant a day or two after the event although Facebook was able to go in that same night, apparently. Nobody can quite understand how that happened. I would hate to see the same happen here because of a lack of resources and support.

We know local authority and public websites have been hacked. The Houses of the Oireachtas website was taken down about a month ago because of a cyberattack. Therefore, a national cybersecurity centre is very much needed. We also saw what we might have thought was a plot from a James Bond movie but which is becoming real. FBS agents based in Dublin were targeting multinationals based in Dublin. Many of those companies have expressed concerns regarding this type of development. There is a directive to be transposed - the EU information security directive but I am not sure what the position is in respect of it. Perhaps the Minister could provide an update.

In the same vein and very much related, we heard concerns in the House yesterday and again today on the social media issues pertaining to online campaigning, the Cambridge Analytica data mining, the use of social media platforms using information malevolently or lending it to other actors to use it in that way. I had legislation before the House, the Online Advertising and Social Media (Transparency) Bill, which would tackle many, if not all, of these issues. In the context of the Estimates, I understood from the Department that a money message was required for that Bill to be progress. I hope all parties now agree that the Bill is important and that it tackles many of the issues that have been raised and over which concern has been expressed in recent days.

Earlier, the Taoiseach said that there were some technical issues. I am happy to work with the Minister and the Government on refining those issues if that is the case but I ask for the Minister's support to bring the Bill to committee as soon as possible. If a money message is required, let us address it today in the Estimates.