Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for those impassioned and important points. To be clear, in respect of the regulation of online political advertising, the Bill relates strictly to electoral events and the intention is to have transparency in regard to who is paying for the advertisements. The Deputy mentioned EU level, where there are policy areas relating to the content of online advertising. This legislation does not deal with that, so that has to be dealt with at different levels. The Bill relates strictly to electoral events.

The Deputy made a good point about voter.ie. I might ask Mr. Ryan to comment specifically on the issue of freedom of expression. It certainly does and can threaten democracy, but it can also be a tool to strengthen democracies. The Bill concerns just regulation and transparency in regard to who is paying for the advertising.

Mr. Ryan might add to that, followed by Ms Woods on voter.ieand the nationwide roll-out of that.