Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for coming. In our pre-legislative scrutiny, we had a long, and at times tortuous, discussion about online political advertisements. We tended to focus on data management and protection when it comes to online political advertisement. In the past week or so, we have seen that outside actors for nefarious purposes are spreading disinformation online. That is particularly the case in the immigration sphere. In some respects, people are inciting activity. Let us consider an election. The commission is in place and in charge. A group is inciting people and asking them to go down to a particular centre. How is it proposed that the commission would handle that? Would it have any role in addressing that or would it simply refer the issue to the Garda? Have the witnesses thought about what the commission would do if that type of disinformation was being spread and how it would handle such a situation in the heat of an election campaign?

In our pre-legislative scrutiny, we focused on Facebook and its advertising, where it came from, when it was flagged and who paid for it. As we now know, other tools are out there and available to people, in particular channels such as Telegram. WhatsApp is another big means of communication. I know it significantly influenced one of the most recent Portuguese elections. Disinformation was spread around WhatsApp. Is it proposed that a team will be in place to monitor that? What tools are they engaging to monitor? Have outside experts been brought in? When is it anticipated that such a team will be in place? How many people will be on the team?

I will move to unregistered parties. Political parties have certain rules and the Labour Party is strict in sticking to those rules. The problem for the upcoming European and local elections, and this is going to be the first real challenge for the commission, will arise where there are unregistered political parties. I know the commission has two recently registered parties.

To follow up, and I hope I leave enough time for our guests to answer, security is a big concern. Massive barricades have gone up outside Leinster House. People are being put off putting their names on the ballot paper by the prospect of the publication of their home addresses. People are inciting. On Saturday, a list of the addresses of people was published and sent out, telling people to go off to those addresses. What steps is the commission taking to ensure that people who put their names on ballot papers are safe?