John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo Deputy Ó Cuív's comments in welcoming the Bill, which has been brought forward by my colleague, Deputy Lawless. The Government will accept that social media, and how it has evolved and how it impacts on us - not just as politicians but also societally - is a matter to which we will have to return to again and again. As Deputy Ó Cuív asked, why not allow the Bill to pass Second Stage and then debate it line by line on Committee Stage? I take the Minister of State's point and I did not hear any reflection of negativity against the idea in principle.

I very much welcome the Bill. In the old days, politicians generally communicated in two ways with their constituents, namely, by telephone or by letter. Now, there is an avalanche of possibilities available, be it through a Facebook profile page, a Facebook political page or Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp or all the other various means of communicating. It is a huge amount of engagement and it is right that we look seriously at the issue. All of us have examples of how it can be abused. The topic of social media and how it relates to politics is one to which Deputy Lawless is clearly alive. It is a topic to which we should consistently be alive as a result of its potential to be abused and to abuse in such a hidden and secretive manner.

The Minister of State touched on my next point, which relates to blurred lines. It may in part have been a little naive on the part of the Taoiseach - and I do not mean this is a dramatic sense - but I would question the appropriateness of the Twitter handle @campaignforleofor a prime minister. When we look at the Twitter handles of prime ministers across the globe, including some of the more famous ones, we see that they generally just use their names. The title @campaignforleois very much a political one.Deputy Varadkar is now a serious office holder and this is where the blurred lines occur, as referred to by the Minister of State. Why should the position of Ministers be different to that of Members of the Oireachtas who avail of the facilities here? Members of the Cabinet are officeholders. They are not just responsible to their constituencies, they are also responsible to the entire State. The classic example is the Taoiseach's broadcasting from the Government jet and putting it up on the Fine Gael website. If that was me, as a Deputy, and given that the taxpayer pays for the Government jet, I would have to state who paid for the facilities to allow me there, who recorded the video and who paid for it? Was it the Government press office? I would imagine it could not have been the Fine Gael press office given that the Government jet was involved. These are the blurred lines in respect of which the Government must be much clearer.

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