Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If there is time, I would like to turn to the issue of the Electoral Reform Bill 2020. The committee's pre-legislative scrutiny report is with the Minister of State. One of the issues we did not really have time to develop, due the time pressures of the pre-legislative scrutiny process, was a belief by many members of the committee that social media is fundamentally changing our electoral system, how people within the system are operating and, equally, how voters engage with the political system. We have indicated that we will deal with the issue in our committee. Have discussions taken place between the Department and others on the idea of a new media regulator and the impact that social media is having on democracy? For example, the Bill proposes that we ban radio advertisements, yet it facilitates advertising through multinational companies that often do nothing to dissuade people from using fake news. That is a glaring error in the Bill. We need far more discussion on the whole area of how social media is impacting on our democracy. Has the Minister of State reflected on the pre-legislative scrutiny report? Is it intended that the Bill will proceed or will other legislation be required?