Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 31:

In page 53, line 30, to delete “prevalent” and substitute “present”.

Before I get to the specific amendment, I mention that we are now on the media section. There seems to be no yardstick or threshold contained in the legislation as to what is the maximum cross-media ownership limit. It seems to me it is an arbitrary decision by the Minister when a media mogul has got into a situation of dominance and where that becomes dangerous. I am not saying a specific formula can be included in primary legislation whereby the Minister would have to act but it is a concern of mine and, I imagine, of many individuals that we are dealing with a media market in Ireland that is very concentrated and is overly located in the hands of a few large powerful business interests.
Given that the media is often the oxygen on which democracy functions, it is really important that this legislation is extremely strong in ensuring a diverse media market. Perhaps the Minister will indicate what his understanding of what the threshold or the limit to cross-media ownership should be.

If it is not put into primary legislation, how exactly will the current Dáil have influence over future Ministers? This specific amendment seeks to substitute the word "prevalent" with "present" because certain cultural issues and identities may not be prevalent within Irish society but they could be present. Minorities should be reflected within media discourse and delivery and my worry would be that the legislation as it is currently worded would mean that some minority cultures or experiences today would be excluded from that reflection.