Mr. Barry Ryan:

I thank the Senator for the questions. To reiterate, the Minister of State is correct in that the extent of the proposals in the general scheme are around online political advertising. It is very much around the transparency piece and it is certainly not in the space of monitoring content, which is a whole different ball game, although it is absolutely for the committee to discuss and consider it. In terms of the recommendations we were legislating for, the recommendation from the interdepartmental group was very much around transparency during electoral periods. That is the way the provisions have been framed.

In terms of voting rights, as the Senator is aware, there are different categories of voter rights. Irish citizens who are residents can vote in all our elections and referendums. British citizens, with the reciprocal arrangements we have with the UK, can vote in Dáil elections and local elections, although, with the UK no longer being a member of the European Union, they are no longer entitled to vote in European Union elections, which is just for Irish citizens and citizens of the European Union. Citizens from outside the European Union have the right to vote in local elections.

As the Senator mentioned, there are constitutional issues in regard to referendums and expanding some of those rights. Certainly, in the context of the research and the advisory piece, that is the sort of issue the commission could look at and make a recommendation to the Minister and the Government on if it felt there was merit in such proposals. While I do not think there are any current proposals to look at that, it is certainly among the issues an electoral commission could consider.