James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and it is great to see more movement by Government to look after the media landscape in Ireland. I particularly focus on the broadcasting point of view in relation to this Bill.

Over the last year, we have seen the critical importance of our community radio stations. I am thinking of shows such as the Patricia Messinger show on C103 or county sound, as many of us affectionately know that station, which are so important to keep people informed and Community Radio Youghal in my home patch in the Cork East constituency. They play an exceptionally important role in keeping people informed of what is going on in their communities and having local, legitimate voices from their communities giving them the correct information where possible.

The Government must ensure they get every support possible because they have suffered badly as a result of the fact that there is not as much advertising revenue coming into radio stations as before the pandemic. This is because businesses are, obviously, suffering and cannot afford to advertise, particularly those that are shut, and so much of that business has disappeared. It is important that the Government continues to ensure we do everything to protect those industries and broadcasting. Legislation such as this is exceptionally important.

I have said umpteen times since I got elected that as the youngest Deputy elected to the Dáil in a long time, I have grown up with technology and see the damage it is doing to so many people. We have seen the rise of political forces the likes of which have never been seen which are driven by conspiracy theories, whether around Covid-19 or the Government's efforts to save people's lives over the last year. It has been deeply troubling. An Garda Síochána has suffered badly as a result of it. The abuse public representatives, from county councillors to Government Ministers and the Taoiseach, are getting as a result of it is frightening.

We have to understand the power of social media. The Government needs to make sure we are doing what we can to ensure legitimate, correct information is getting out to as many people as possible. It is not about policing social media. I am not talking about putting further restrictions on social media. However, from the Government's point of view, it is important that we make sure we use social media to get legitimate information to people.

I am concerned about the idea of banning advertising online. Doing so would mean that public representatives who are elected with constitutional functions, including Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas and members of local authorities, whether they are county mayor, chairperson of a municipal district or county councillors, and Ministers and their Departments would not be able to get legitimate information out. It would create a false situation with an entire platform, across multiple social media companies, where there is no way of getting correct information boosted online. That is important. If I say anything here over the course of the next year, I ask the Minister to take that information away with him. We will suffer in the long run if we do not do anything about it. Every parliamentarian in this country and anyone who is listening today should watch "The Social Network" on Netflix. It is an exceptionally important film that shows how social media can manipulate how people think. We all need to understand the negative power that may have for democracies in the next couple of years.

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