Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 8, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “ “political purposes” means any of the following purposes, namely—

(a) to promote or oppose, directly or indirectly, the interests of a political party, a political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a representative in the European Parliament, or

(b) to present, directly or indirectly, the policies or a particular policy of a political party, a political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas, a representative in the European Parliament, or

(c) to present, directly or indirectly, the comments of a political party, a political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a representative in the European Parliament with regard to the policy or policies of another political party, political group, a member of either House of the Oireachtas, representative in the European Parliament or candidate at an election or referendum or otherwise, or

(d) to promote or oppose, directly or indirectly, the interests of a third party in connection with the conduct or management of any campaign conducted with a view to promoting or procuring a particular outcome at a Dáil, Seanad, European or local election, or referendum, such campaign relating to an election for which the polling day has been set by Government or a referendum for which the Referendum Commission has been established, or

(e) to promote or oppose, directly or indirectly, the election of a candidate at a Dáil, Seanad or European election or to solicit votes for or against a candidate or to present the policies or a particular policy of a candidate or the views of a candidate on any matter connected with the election or the comments of a candidate with regard to the policy or policies of a political party or a political group or of another candidate at the election, or

(f) otherwise to influence the outcome of the election or a referendum;”.

I ask Members to have some patience with me as we only got the groupings as we walked in the door, which means I am trying to reshuffle lots of amendments into order to be able to group them. That is obviously not ideal but I understand the pressure the Seanad Office was under to be able to come back to us with those groupings.

I thank the Minister's officials for meeting us last week to discuss a number of these amendments. We have an issue with the Bill being taken before the Digital Services Act, DSA, even if we know there is compatibility between the two but also the fact the expert group has not come back on the complaints mechanism. As such, there are many reasons we should have stalled this Bill but all we can do at this stage is try to amend it.

The amendment proposes to add in a definition of "political "purposes within the legislation. Under section 9, the principal Act is bring amended. Section 46M(2)(a) provides that a broadcaster or relevant media service shall not broadcast an advertisement that "is directed towards a political end ...". First, I am curious about the term "political end". I am not sure I have seen it in legislation before, nor is its meaning defined in the definitions section. I ask that the Minister speak to that specifically. What constitutes a "political end" is unclear as no definition is provided. The term is very vague and risks preventing a broadcaster or digital service provider from sharing information through advertisements in the public interest. If we think about issues like climate change, sexual consent and LGBT matters, there are loads of different things that could be construed as a "political end" yet there is no definition of what that is. While existing legislation curtails political advertising, the provision in this Bill could be misinterpreted to such an extent that important political issues such as the ones I have outlined are conflated with the content of political advertisements. This amendment provides a definition of "political purposes" and complements a separate, later amendment, namely No. 101, that seeks to replace the term "political end" with "political purposes".

The Bill provides that a broadcaster or relevant media service shall not broadcast an advertisement which: "is directed towards a political end ...". What constitutes a "political end" is unclear as no definition is provided, as I said. It is vague and risks preventing a broadcaster or digital service provider from sharing information through advertisements. This amendment is closely related to the first amendment and seeks to clarify what is meant by "political end" and insert a useful definition of what "political purposes" are so we are clear about what that means in the context of advertising and broadcasting.