Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a major piece of reforming legislation. It has taken a long time to make it to the House and I am pleased to see it is finally here. I am particularly happy to see that the legislation will deal with the issue of ownership across the media, which is an essential part of a healthy democratic society. The legislation is in keeping with the advisory group in this area, which recommended that the legislation retains the basic model of current media legislation, which is based on the principle of avoiding intervention by government in media ownership except in specific circumstances following procedures determined by law.

However, it is important to modernise these laws to reflect international best practice and in line with the latest technological developments. The legislation will implement in full, with two changes, the 11 recommendations of the advisory group on media mergers, which published the Sreenan report during the lifetime of the previous Government. The broad three-step process that currently exists in respect of media mergers will continue in existence in future. First, there will be a determination by the relevant regulatory authority that a merger has taken place. Second, there will be a decision by the relevant regulatory authority on whether the merger should be permitted to go ahead on competition grounds. Third, assuming the relevant regulatory authority has given the go-ahead, a decision will be made by the Minister on whether the merger should be permitted to go ahead on the grounds of the public interest.

The recommendations of the Sreenan report include the findings that there should be a statutory definition of media plurality, referring both to ownership and content. In addition, the Competition Act 2002 should be amended to incorporate a statutory test to be applied by the Minister in the discharge of his or her function on media mergers and there should be an ongoing collection and periodic publication of information and employment of concrete indicators on media plurality in the State. I think this is very important. The ownership of the media organs active in the State needs to be monitored in order to detect when competition in the media sector might be lessened - or indeed strengthened - with transactions involving media businesses. There should also be a separate system of notification of media mergers made to the Minister for clearance, as well as an obligation imposed by statute on parties to a media merger to provide full information to the Minister on all circumstances which might impair media plurality in the State and to notify any changes in information provided to the Minister, with appropriate penalties for non-compliance. In the event of the Minister deciding to proceed to a detailed investigation of a proposed merger, a three to five person consultative panel should be established on a statutory basis to provide advice to the Minister on the media merger.

I am also very pleased that the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is taking on these responsibilities from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, as I feel that the former Department is a better fit. As a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources I will be doing all I can to assist in the passing of the legislation.

There is no provision for an ongoing regulatory function in respect of media ownership, nor did the Sreenan report recommend it. The power is only exercised in the event that a merger takes place as defined, and that merger is permitted to proceed on competition grounds. The key concept in the definition of a merger remains the concept of "effective control", and no changes are recommended or provided for in that context.

The law makes two changes to the recommendations of the Sreenan report: first, that the relevant joint Oireachtas committee will become a notifiable body and second, that the legislation will transfer responsibility for media mergers from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. The definition of "media business" should be amended to include publication of newspapers and periodicals on the Internet and the broadcasting of certain audiovisual material on the Internet. One of the other purposes of the Bill is to strengthen the enforcement of competition law in Ireland by setting up the competition and consumer protection commission. Competition offences are serious white-collar crimes and they must be tackled effectively.

A suite of additional enforcement powers had already been provided to the Competition Authority in 2012 under the Competition (Amendment) Act 2012 and additional staff were also allocated to it to strengthen competition law enforcement in the context of the EU-IMF financial programme for Ireland. The Bill gives additional powers to the new competition and consumer protection commission by extending the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2011 and the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 to serious competition law offences. In addition, some elements of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 related to the use of the taped evidence at witness interviews have been incorporated into the powers of the new competition and consumer protection commission.

The Bill also contains provisions to regulate particular commercial relationships between grocery businesses, such as large retailers, suppliers and wholesalers, and related undertakings such as franchises. The Bill provides that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation will have powers to make regulations in respect of certain aspects of the commercial relationships between relevant grocery goods undertakings, and specifies those matters on which the Minister may make such regulations. The regulations will affect relationships between relevant grocery goods undertakings and other grocery goods undertakings. Regulations will only apply to contracts entered into or renewed on or after their date of entry into operation.

I commend the Bill.

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