Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I confirm to the Chairman that I am in the precincts of Leinster House. I said at the beginning of this Bill, when the Minister of State first came before us, that I believe it to be a really exciting piece of reforming legislation. After hours of engaging in debates I still feel this way. The Bill has the potential to transform our electoral registration system, to modernise our register of electors, and to empower more people to become more active participants in democracy.

During our prelegislative scrutiny we heard from many different witnesses, from academics, political scientists and political strategists to social media companies, those who hold social media platforms to account and interest groups that encourage better diversity in politics, and the Minister of State's officials who put so much work into the Bill. The one thing that all of those witnesses and all of us in this committee have in common is that we all value living in a free and fair democracy, and we want to keep things that way.

Before I was a Deputy I had the opportunity to travel a lot. I found myself in Fiji during a military coup, in Palestine during conflict, and in Kosovo while they built up a brand new democracy. Seeing the real-life experiences of other countries ingrained in me a huge respect for our democracy and a real sense of responsibility to help protect it. I want to protect our democracy from outside interference, be it foreign money or foreign technologies such as bots that can create undue influence.

I will now put some of my questions and concerns to the Minister of State, after all of our lengthy debates, which I hope he will address within the Bill and not just here today, or commit to addressing thereafter. As Deputy McAuliffe has said, the Bill regulates online political advertising in the run up to the election only. This is for such a small window of opportunity in an election cycle and I do not believe that this goes far enough. We need to regulate online political advertising year round. We need to do this because not to do so represents too big a threat to our democracy. I do not believe there is any place in a free or fair democracy for online bots, for politically motivated anonymous online accounts, or for data brokers to be used by political parties. These issues need to be addressed also.

It is very disappointing that when we invited in the general secretaries of political parties to discuss issues that were relevant to this legislation, instead of sending in their political strategists from Sinn Féin we got a politician, and we did not even get a response from Solidarity-People Before Profit. Politicals parties like these receive State funding and they should, at the very least, engage in these political matters in an appropriate way. I want to put my feelings on this on the record. Perhaps the Minister of State will take the time to respond to the concerns I have raised, concerns that were threaded right through our discussions.