In this paper we consider the Euler--Poisson system (describing a plasma consisting of positive ions with a negligible temperature and massless electrons in thermodynamical equilibrium) on the Sobolev spaces $H^s(\mathbb{R}^3)$, $s > 5/2$. Using a geometric approach we show that for any time $T > 0$ the corresponding solution map, $(\rho_0,u_0) \mapsto (\rho(T),u(T))$, is nowhere locally uniformly continuous. On the other hand it turns out that the trajectories of the ions are analytic curves in $\mathbb{R}^3$.