Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Tánaiste will be aware, the activities of Cambridge Analytica in the UK and around the world were dramatically uncovered at the weekend. This company engaged in sinister manipulation of the electoral and democratic process in many countries. It stopped at nothing to profit from the nefarious use of data to undermine the political process. The Tánaiste will also be aware that a fundamental flaw in Facebook's data protection rules has been exposed. The data of 50 million users was taken without their knowledge and used to steer the course of the 2016 election campaign in the United States. As the Tánaiste knows, the Data Protection Bill 2018 is going through the Seanad at the moment and is due to come to this House. One of the many weaknesses in the Bill is the provision in section 43 allowing personal data to be gathered in this country for political purposes, particularly in elections. As the Internet knows very few boundaries, we could be a home base for that sort of activity in different parts of the world.

We are at the start of a referendum campaign which is critical for this country. It is important that it is conducted by proper means and in a way that is fair to all sides. There is a real lacuna in our legal system at present. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has said it will not be responsible for regulating advertising in the referendum process, even though Facebook is now a broadcasting platform in many instances. Facebook has said it will put advertisements in newspapers to steer people away from possible fake news. I do not know how that will work. The Data Protection Commissioner seems to be powerless to do anything other than to advise Irish householders and individuals who will vote in the referendum how to trace where advertising has come from and how to turn it off or measure its effect.

In light of the clear realities of where we are, and given the importance of this country having the very highest data and digital standards, will the Government consider amending section 43 of the Data Protection Bill 2018, which proposes to allow private data to be used for political purposes? This is one of many amendments that need to be made. What can the Referendum Commission do to ensure there is real transparency in the forthcoming referendum campaign? When people advertise on social media platforms - I understand Twitter is not going to take advertisements, but Facebook will do so - there needs to be absolute clarity about where that advertising is coming from and who has paid for it so that we might have some balance and some truth. We should not allow the various international and other interests who might want to pervert our referendum campaign to have their way.

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