Addressing a conference on financial crime this week, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris revealed he had been a victim of internet “deep fakes” – entirely fabricated but highly realistic videos made with artificial intelligence – used to advertise fraudulent investment products online.

The deepfake of him, he joked, was so realistic that “I had to watch it twice to check it wasn’t me”.

I regret to say there was some sniggering at this around Leinster House. Given his ubiquitous media profile, it was entirely possible Harris might have said something about investments and then forgotten about it, insiders joked. One suggested this might be about the State savings scheme he flagged earlier this year. Another imagined a conversation between Harris and his advisers: “Did I actually say that? Can someone check?”

Lols all round. Though as is often the case in political banter there was a bit of an edge to it too – relations between the two big parties in Government not being always (or actually ever) as harmonious as they pretend. Nor was all this confined to Fianna Fáil either. Anyway, I digress.

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Suffice to say that purported financial fraud by the........

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