Google has been ordered by the High Court to hand over any details it has about the identity of people who paid for advertisements falsely linking Tánaiste Mícheál Martin to a cryptocurrency scam.
Last week, Mr Martin's lawyers went to court in an effort to identify those involved.
His senior counsel, Padraic Lyons told the judge the issues were very serious for Mr Martin on a personal and political level and also had the potential to erode trust in the political system and disrupt public life in the State.
The ads suggested Mr Martin was endorsing a cryptocurrency trading program and was making tens of thousands of euro every day.
They appeared on prominent Irish websites and linked to a fraudulent scheme designed to target vulnerable people, the court was told.
This morning, Senior Counsel, Eileen Barrington for Google told the court that the company was not objecting to an order which had been drafted by lawyers for Mr Martin.
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey made the order which directs Google to hand over basic subscriber information - including names, email addresses and telephone numbers relating to the accounts associated with the ads.
It also directs Google to reveal details of any financial accounts or services used to pay for the publication of the ads and details of any IP addresses from which the accounts were accessed.
The information must be handed over to Mr Martin’s lawyers within 21 days of the order being perfected.
Mr Martin may then be able to take legal action against anyone identified in the information provided.
His legal action against Google was struck out with no order as to costs - which usually means each side pays their own costs.
'Ruinous consequences'
The Tánaiste said he welcomed the granting of the order, which he said would ensure he received all information relating to the "false and misleading" ads.
Mr Martin described the ads as completely unacceptable.
In a statement, he said he believed it was important he took the legal action to ensure these currently anonymous third parties will be held to account for promoting "unregulated and dangerous financial products" by linking them to well known public figures such as the Tánaiste.
He said these products had potentially ruinous consequences to unsuspecting people.
Mr Martin said every citizen should be entitled to request and receive information relating to the bad actors behind these schemes.
And he said there was a a significant onus on large tech companies, including Google, to do all they could to ensure their platforms and products were not weaponised by bad actors and scammers.
