Mr. Dualta Ó Broin:

On the point on oversight and who will be watching the watchmen, we have the oversight board in place, which we established, which is independent of us and which is a global board that will be the final arbiter on whether we made the right or the wrong decision in removing individual pieces of content. In addition, we realise that external oversight of our systems is incredibly important in establishing and building trust. This year, an independent third party has responded to a request for tender to carry out an audit of our systems and services right across the world, the systems and services we have in place to protect and keep users as safe as possible on our platforms. It is the first time it is being done. That might feed into the approach that is going to be taken under the digital services Act to establish whether, at the systems level, the company is doing what it should do.

In respect of lobbying in regard to this legislation, the first we heard of it was inThe Irish Timesarticle in early January. We held a meeting with officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We had not established our position at that time and wanted to understand what was the timeframe. We have since put together the written submission of 23 February, which all committee members have. We sought to engage with members of the committee and to have individual meetings with members of the committee in the run-up to this. We were not aware this hearing would happen but, obviously, the committee has our opening statements and all of the details. That will all be reflected in the lobbying register the next time the reporting is due.