DUBLIN: The Irish government should consider copying Australia's plan to force Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google to share advertising revenue with local media, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday.

Companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter "are sort of free riders on costs incurred by other people," Varadkar, whose country hosts the European headquarters of most of the largest U.S tech companies, told journalists.

"I think the new government will want to study that and see if it makes sense to do something similar in Ireland. On the face of it, it is a good idea," said Varadkar, whose party is in talks with rivals on the formation of a new government.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Catherine Evans)