Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Haugen for attending and her opening statement. In it, she talked about governments not having enough information to even ask the right questions, let alone get the right answers. She has helped us with the questions.

Ms Haugen spoke on our national radio station at the weekend and said that, in tackling the tech giants, a regulator would need at least 20 algorithm experts at their disposal who understand deep product expertise and how the small choices made in those systems interact and hold those systems accountable. However, as she said, there is no undergraduate course to help train these young students. They trained inhouse by Facebook.

Last night in our Seanad, I asked our Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the following question. Even if we pass the legislation in this country, are we fighting with one hand behind our back because we will not have the algorithm experts on the public pay roll to fight against companies that make a €40 billion profit and can attract those people to come work for them? As I said to the Minister, we would need to break into the chocolate factory and steal the Oompa-Loompas to get the magic formula to be able to fight Facebook. Are we fighting with one hand behind our back?