Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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1071. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if the recently-published National Counter Disinformation Strategy includes provisions to address the dissemination of misleading or inaccurate information by State agencies or State-owned companies; and if not, how the Government intends to ensure that organs of the State are held to the same standards of truth, transparency and accountability that the strategy seeks to promote in media, civil society, and online platforms. [21024/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Disinformation is a serious challenge which can only be met with a whole-of-society response. The National Counter Disinformation Strategy is aimed at coordinating national efforts to counter this complex issue. It is not about deciding on individual instances of disinformation but instead focuses on those harms arising from it. It is a first step in setting out what that response looks like.

The Strategy aims to, amongst other things, support the building of public knowledge, the building of resilience to disinformation and ensuring cross-sector coordination, collaboration and cooperation. Supporting the development of strong public communications and the provision of reliable, clear and accessible public information by Government can play an important role in reducing the impact of disinformation and supporting trust in government. There are a range of other agencies involved in the communication of trustworthy information, including the Citizens Information Board, the Central Statistics Office, libraries and others.

The importance of public communications and trust in public institutions is acknowledged in Commitment 2 of the Strategy and to help make that commitment a reality, there are actions around developing public communications capacity across government departments and agencies, embedding a unified government identity to signify government information and support trust in government and developing www.gov.ie as a reliable and accessible source of public information.

Now that the Strategy is published, the focus switches to overseeing and monitoring implementation. With that in mind, an Oversight Group will be established and it will prioritise an implementation plan. Officials in my Department will chair this Oversight Group.