John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like colleagues, I recognise Ukraine is a country that wanted to develop closer ties to the European Union. It wanted to join the European Union and NATO. An attack on Ukraine, as initiated by Russia, is an attack on anyone who is a believer in democracy around the world. That is what is at stake here. Democracy and the way of life we all believe in and support are what is at stake.

Although I am not asking for a debate or calling for any particular action, I wish to make reference to a committee meeting I attended with Senator Carrigy yesterday. I attended the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media yesterday for the testimony of Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower. Senator Malcolm Byrne was there too. Last May, nobody knew who Frances was. No one in this world knew who she was. She saw practices going on within Facebook that she knew were deeply wrong. These practices related to how its algorithms work and everything else. She decided, at immense personal sacrifice, to lift the lid on that and let the world know about the shady practices in which Facebook engages when it comes to its algorithms. Now she is known right across the world. She is speaking to parliamentarians across the world to try to best inform us about the dangers posed by this company. As I did yesterday, I commend her on her moral fortitude. To have the ability, as one sole individual, to take on one of the largest companies in the world almost by herself and to lift the lid on these practices is so commendable and something of which we can all be proud. I wish to put on the record of this House that Frances Haugen has done a tremendous service not just to Ireland but right across the world in allowing us to know exactly what big tech companies are up to and how we can best tackle those practices in order to protect citizens.