Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a serious issue. I welcome this question and compliment Deputy Alan Farrell on tabling it.

We would be extremely naive to think that the influence of online advertising on the political process would not have an impact on us. It has had an impact and will continue to do so. The size of our population makes it cheaper and easier to do so. We need a robust legislative response to the issue and I urge the Government to do so. We have long advocated the establishment of an electoral commission in this country. Such a commission should be part of the response in question.

We need to police the impact of advertising and other things are made on our electoral process and on referendums. There are also other things that an electoral commission could do including the protection of the integrity of our electoral register and ensure that it is constantly updated. It should also facilitate recent immigrants voting. We need to take these matters seriously and I support Deputy Micheál Martin's suggestion that a small, all-party group could look at this very quickly and make recommendations that Government could work with in order to provide a robust legislative response, hopefully in advance of any further elections in this jurisdiction.

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