Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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590. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the concerns of a company (details supplied) that election integrity is being undermined; the policy responses he is considering following the decision by the company to ban all advertisements pertaining to the referendum on the eighth amendment to the Constitution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22099/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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There are no specific requirements under the Electoral Acts in relation to online advertising. Under section 140 of the Electoral Act 1992, the sole provision in relation to advertisements provides that every notice, bill, poster or similar document having reference to a referendum or distributed for the purpose of furthering a particular result at a referendum is required to bear upon its face the name and address of the printer and of the publisher thereof. The Acts do not regulate the content of election or referendum posters and I have no plans to amend the Acts in that regard.

However, for the purposes of providing independent and impartial information on the subject matter of a referendum, section 2 of the Referendum Act 1998 provides for the establishment of a Referendum Commission, which is an independent body, whose membership is prescribed in the Act. The main functions of a Referendum Commission are to explain the subject matter of referendum proposals, to communicate these explanations to the electorate, to promote public awareness of the referendum and to encourage the electorate to vote.

The Government has also established an interdepartmental group to consider the substantive issues arising from recent experiences in other democratic countries having particular regard to the use of social media by external, anonymous or hidden third parties.

My Department is aware, through media reports, of the decision taken by the company referred to by the Deputy to ban all advertisements relating to the forthcoming referendum. As is the case for any private company, such operational decisions are a matter for the company itself and I have no role in compelling a private company to provide such a service to any individual or organisation.