Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs
European Elections 2024, Voting Rights and Combatting Disinformation: Discussion
Mr. Art O'Leary:
We do not wish to be in the middle of those arguments. To be honest, Irish people are sophisticated enough to be able to weigh up all the perspectives and, having heard all the arguments, made a decision on the way they are going to vote. The thing that worries me most is electoral process misinformation. This may include suggestions such as the electoral register being rigged in order that a person's vote will not count as all those ballot boxes will be taken away and put in the boot of a car, or that voters must write on the ballot paper and so on. That is the area where we can make a real impact. It tends to be much more black and white. To answer the Deputy's question, I suspect that is the area in which we will spend most of our time, in the initial stages anyway, pending our experience.