Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I very much agree with Deputy Ó Broin. Withdrawal is the responsible thing to do here. It is worth saying that these issues were discussed at the committee. Legislation to address these issues around online political activity was sought but to bring these amendments in now without any level of scrutiny, given the seriousness of the issues and the requirement that they be scrutinised, is the wrong approach. They should be withdrawn and draft amendments should go to the committee to be scrutinised. We should also be able to get expert advice on this.

What is being attempted here needs to be done.

Nothing like this has ever been done before in Ireland, certainly in terms of trying to regulate online electoral and political activity. Having clarity around the processes and the terminology is very important. Many of these definitions on misinformation, disinformation and so forth, and the very strong powers that are to be given to the electoral commission, rest on the definition of “public harm”. The legislation defines “public harm” as meaning any serious threat to the fairness or integrity of an election or referendum. Given that the Minister of State, Deputies Ó Broin and Howlin and I will all have different ideas on what “fairness” could be, how the electoral commission decides what is fair and is not fair needs a lot of scrutiny. That is a huge power being given to the commission that gives it the power to take decisions and issue takedown notices and everything else that can and will affect the outcome of elections. It is a very serious responsibility that it is being given. For us not to have clarity around that definition, not to have that properly scrutinised, not to know what are the safeguards that are being built into these powers that are been given to the commission, or not to know what level of accountability is being put on this is not acceptable. To hand all of those powers to the commission and not to know what the thinking is behind that, to me, is deeply problematic.

I hope the Minister of State can give us information on that now. The thing to do would be to withdraw these amendments and let them be scrutinised properly, so all of us, across the political system, can be happy with these amendments and can support them, as has been done to date with the parts of the Electoral Reform Bill that were brought through the committee process.

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