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

I thank the Chairman. I will try to get through these quickly and the officials might come in on any specific items. On Deputy McAuliffe's point around education and participation, we absolutely see this as a critical and evolving role. We are clear that the commission, once established later this year, will build its functions and role over time. That is connected to the Vote and the non-Vote elements of this. We certainly still believe it will have its own autonomy despite the Vote and there is non-Vote expenditure there as well.

On social media and the question of whether it is wise to proceed with the online political advertising, we think it is and it is complementary to another suite of measures around the European democracy action plan, the Digital Services Act, the online safety and media regulation Bill and the hate crime Bill. Thus between European and State legislation, we believe complementary measures will be in place.

On Deputy Ó Broin's points, I welcome the support. As to the strengthening of the legislation, we are of the view that our receipt of the report will be the time to make a detailed comment on the outputs of the committee's fantastic work. I absolutely take on board the comments around the ongoing electoral research. I watched in particular the commentary from Dr. Jane Suiter and others around that. We think it is absolutely vital and this Government and future ones must resource that. It is going to be a critical part of strengthening our democracy and participation in it. I am not sure if any of the officials want to address the structure of the board. It has the capacity to move from seven to nine and the capacity to bring in independent advice and support in relation to specific elements of its work.

I apologise for that being a very whistle-stop response to the questions asked.