Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I noted the Taoiseach's Twitter post a few days ago questioning whether Fianna Fáil has any policies and where have they all gone. The video the Taoiseach issued implied that Fianna Fáil policies are now few and far between. It reminded me of the type of American-style attack advertisements that are now too frequent. It raises a serious point - the influence of social media and how it is used by politicians in the State, and particularly the rising influence of the far right and external forces in elections. We need strong and enforceable legislation on ongoing political advertising of any sort to ensure our democracy is neither for sale or open to external interference. We have long talked about the requirement to put a statutory electoral commission in place. When will we have that? Many of us thought that we would be in a general election here by now.

It is certainly likely that there will be a general election within the next six months. Everybody in this House would want a level playing field for that election. I have two direct questions for the Taoiseach. When does he envisage that the electoral commission will be established on a statutory basis in order to allow it to be the determiner of fair play in future elections? How will he ensure that external influences will not impact on our electoral system in the forthcoming election?

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