James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms McDonald. While I will go to Deputy Ó Ríordáin in a second round, before doing that I will come in with something myself. It strikes me that a lot of what we are talking about is misinformation and disinformation that is being propagated, intentionally in many cases. Is there more that the State or the authorities collectively can do with regard to positive information? There is a vacuum and that is being filled with misinformation and a lot of bad actors are in that space. The example was given last week with that outrageous incident in Celbridge. Rumours spread online for maybe two or three days and then that led to confrontation and people being harassed, with residents trying to access their accommodation and being impeded from doing so. The threat of violence was hanging in the air. All sorts of rumours were flying around that I understand were not responded to by anyone in authority. Then the wider narrative around this space has not been entered into as fulsomely as it could have been the same authorities. Is that fair to say? What do the witnesses think about that?