Mr. Barry Ryan:

To expand a little on that, as the Minister of State said, the measures contained in the general scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill and, ultimately, the Bill itself are very targeted. Their origins lie in an interdepartmental group chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach, which looked at Ireland's electoral processes and disinformation, and the recommendations the group made in its second report, in particular, the recommendation that we regulate for transparency around online political advertising at electoral events. That is what is contained in the proposals the Minister of State is bringing forward.

The Minister of State is correct that there are other elements to this. There is the online safety and media regulation Bill, for example, which is also being progressed. We have engaged with colleagues on that. We have also engaged extensively with the European Commission in the 12 months since it published the European democracy action plan this time last year. In the plan, the Commission made a commitment to bring forward proposals in the area of regulating online political advertising.

It has done that and published proposals for regulation on 25 November. The piece on which we are focusing as we conclude drafting the Bill is making sure the proposals in the Bill align with the proposals coming from Europe.