Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My first question is for Dr. Culloty. On foreign information manipulation and interference, we talk about Russia and China and their influence in the Balkan states and across Europe, in particular, in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. We have had witnesses before the committee who have spoken about that. What is Dr. Culloty's view of that? Is it a very serious issue? Is it rampant, for want of a better word? Is there any evidence of Russian and Chinese foreign interference in the Irish case?

We had the Electoral Commission in here last week and its representatives spoke about US influence on Irish politics. I believe Dr. Culloty mentioned that in one of her replies. I am interested in finding out if there is any evidence of Russian and Chinese foreign information manipulation or interference in the case of Ireland. What does Dr. Culloty know about what is happening across Europe in that regard?

My next question is for European Movement Ireland. Coming up to the European Parliament elections, how do we keep the debate focused on European issues? I suspect there will probably be a number of issues on the top of the agenda, particularly migration, the nature restoration law on which the European Parliament voted yesterday, the European Green Deal and the whole climate change agenda, as well as Israel and Gaza and the remarks of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen following the brutal Hamas attacks, which raised issues. While I suspect that European issues will come to the fore as we head into the European Parliament elections, what can be done to keep the debate focused on those issues? I guess the candidates have a role to play in that regard and they will do their best but this is very important because these elections are so important.

I will now ask the rambling question. Who decides the facts? I was reading Paul Lynch's Prophet Song last night and it features an interesting paragraph about facts and how society can just adopt a whole new set of facts under certain conditions. It is probably a very complex question but there is no doubt that populism is on the rise across Europe. There are far-right issues, for example, migration, the push-back against enlargement and against climate change measures, with farmers protesting, and even criticism of the role of NGOs. That is very much a problem across the European Union. Does EMI have anything to say about who actually decides the facts or can that be done? Linked to that, can Coimisiún na Meán do its work in this area or is that a huge challenge? To return to Deputy Ó Murchú's question, does it have the tools to deal effectively with the issue of disinformation?