Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank colleagues for their support for the idea of a cross-party motion on Syria.Over the days since this House last sat the horrific news from eastern Ghouta in particular has continued, with increasing civilian casualties and civilian evacuations. I am grateful to those who have expressed support, and I hope to bring a cross-party motion before this House tomorrow or perhaps early next week. Perhaps the Leader could ensure that it is on the Order Paper without debate so that we can say that the Seanad has agreed this motion. It can then be presented to the Minister, whose office I have been in communication with, and also to other interested parties, such as the Russian ambassador.

I also want to commend the Trinity College Dublin Students' Union and the Take Back Trinity campaign for their campaign last week which challenged the ridiculous and sudden imposition of a new supplemental exam fee. Along with my Trinity colleagues I was delighted to support the students and was proud to be in Front Square on Thursday when the students emerged from their occupation. It felt like old times, to see students engaged in this sort of radical action. The students were entirely supported by staff unions in the college, both administrative and academic, including my own union, the Irish Federation of University Teachers, IFUT. They had really strong support from across the college community for their actions, and I commend the provost for engaging with the students. I am glad to see the matter appears to be moving towards a resolution.

I welcome the progress being made in the other House on the Thirty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution Bill. I am glad to see that it appears to be moving to Committee Stage today. It should be before this House next week; I know that we will be discussing that at the leaders' meeting. From the point of view of the Labour Party, we will co-operate in any way we can to ensure that the Bill is passed before Easter so that we can run a respectful and dignified campaign for repeal.

However, to follow on from what Senator Ardagh said, I would have a real concern about the role that social media campaigning is going to play in this referendum, and indeed in future referendum and election campaigns here. I want to pay tribute to Carole Cadwalladr, the Guardianand Channel Four teams, and the whistleblowers from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica who have come forward to highlight concerns about the misuse of the personal data of Facebook users. Clearly there is more to come in terms of the revelations. We see, for instance, the UK information commissioner seeking a search warrant to search the English offices of Cambridge Analytica. It raises a bigger question for us in Ireland, given that Facebook has its headquarters here, as to how we may regulate Facebook and other such companies to ensure there is adequate protection for personal data. The Data Protection Bill is before us tomorrow, and the Minister has indicated he will be moving certain amendments to that Bill in light of those revelations, but I would ask that in the near future we have a more broad debate over how best to resource and empower our own Data Protection Commissioner to ensure adequate regulation. This started many years ago with the case of Max Schrems. It was an Irish case which lead to a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice, effectively preventing Facebook from misusing data, but we are still seeing the repercussions of such misuse. Again, there are real concerns about how this might play out in a referendum campaign. I will ask the Leader for that debate in due course.