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

That is okay. I accept I do it on other days but not today.

Deputy Eamon Ryan has already alluded to the meeting that he, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton and I had yesterday with Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook. It was a good meeting. Among the issues discussed were those of integrity and transparency in electoral campaigns and the threat to democracy worldwide which social media poses. Mr. Zuckerberg outlined some of the measures which Facebook is implementing voluntarily at European level in advance of the forthcoming European Parliament elections. I do not agree with Mr. Zuckerberg on everything but he made a strong point when he said it is up to governments and parliaments to regulate, legislate and lead in this matter.

My Online Advertising and Social Media (Transparency) Bill was introduced in 2017. It has gone through detailed scrutiny and been the subject of expert evidence. A long list of stakeholders came before the relevant committee. It has done its work and discharged its duties. We can now add Mr. Zuckerberg to that long list. We missed introducing this legislation for the repeal the eighth amendment campaign and the presidential election. The writ has been moved for the local elections and the European Parliament elections will be held in a month’s time.

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