Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am shocked at the revelations around Cambridge Analytica and the harvesting of data of 50 million Facebook users. This obviously helped with the election of President Trump. Over the years we have talked of dirty tricks and underhand methods in elections but they are in the ha'penny place to what is happening now. We need a debate on this issue with regard to bribes, ex-spies, dirty tricks and fake news. We certainly need a debate to find out what exactly is happening with social media. As we have discussed today, it is far from user-friendly and is being used to model human behaviour. It could be used to undermine the democratic process in elections.

Senator Gavan referred to the UK. I was in the UK for most of the week. I was in Cheltenham, in Twickenham and in the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. There is goodwill towards the Irish in the UK but we need to discuss Brexit. It is looming large and if the United Kingdom leaves the EU it will have a huge impact on the island of Ireland.

The Irish people in England and the Irish on the island of Ireland were united with the wonderful result last Saturday. I am more of a soccer man than a rugby man but this year it is 30 years since Ireland beat England 1-0 in Stuttgart. As with the uilleann pipes, Shaun Davey and Planxty, sport also gives the Irish people living in the UK a great sense of pride, nationalism and patriotism, without spilling any blood. I believe the Cathaoirleach worked in the UK.