Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Solidarity-People Before Profit.

Legislation relating to the electoral commission is being worked on at present. We expect to have the heads of a Bill next year. We are working on other legislation that will come in before that. That was approved in principle by Government just this week. That legislation will require transparency when it comes to political advertising online. As we all know now, if somebody puts up a poster on a public lamp post to advertise themselves or a public meeting, it is necessary to state on that who printed it and who is responsible for it. That is not the case online at the moment so we want to pass legislation that requires any online political advertising to be identifiable as to who commissioned it and where it came from. That will be an important step forward and one that will be widely welcomed in the House.

I am satisfied that the GIS is impartial. In my experience, civil servants are very careful about that and not crossing the line between working for the Department and the Government into the political sphere where they are working for a politician or a party. I am very respectful of that division. It is the case that all my staff have close working relationships with the civil servants in the Department. That is as it should be.

In terms of the Be Winter Ready campaign, I honestly do not know if the GIS is involved in that. I believe it is run by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, but I may be incorrect. I tend not to get directly involved in any of these communication issues for reasons I think people will understand.

I reiterate that neither the GIS nor the Department of the Taoiseach have any role in respect of my social media accounts. MerrionStreet.ieis a Government account but the ones under my name are mine. Civil servants and the GIS do not have any role in that at all.

I share Deputy Burton's concerns about the number of women and men, but particularly women, who are leaving politics in the UK because they believe the climate has become toxic. This is not just a social media issue, it is much more than that. Much of it is related to Brexit but perhaps not just that. I do not believe we have had that experience yet in this country but it is increasingly difficult to get people to run for election-----

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