Mr. Tom Murphy:

Deputy McGrath has probably already asked Mr. Vaughan about what is an influencer in a newspaper. I imagine if Mr. Vaughan walks down St. Patrick's Street in Cork tomorrow and he is leisurely, he could meet four people, for example, a reader of the newspaper, a purchaser of the newspaper, an advertiser of the newspaper or, dare I say it, a politician. If he stopped and spoke to the four of them, I have no doubt that the conversation would inevitably go to something that was in the newspaper that day, that week, that month or whatever.

Our view is that we engage. Cork is rather different place to live and work in than Dublin, for example, in terms of population size and the size of the city. We interact with people on an ongoing basis. It is rather difficult to avoid. I suspect Deputy McGrath knows that himself. Any one of those people could be an influencer, if that is the correct terminology.

For example, I might meet an estate agent. That person may say to me that he would love to get an iconic property featured in the weekend supplement but cannot. That is not a complaint or editorial influence in any way. It is a matter of a person trying to advantage his client in some way. However, the editor might be of the view that the newspaper covered the next-door property two months previously. He may have no interest because he may be of the view that there is nothing particularly iconic about the property. A motor dealer could be in the same situation. He may say to the editor that he wants to get his new marque reviewed by the newspaper motoring correspondent but that he has be unable to do so. The editorial view may well be that either the newspaper has done the brand previously or it will do it next week or it will do it with a different dealer. There are 100 possibilities. All of these things are influencers. Do I believe any of these influencers function in a way that has a detrimental effect on the brand or the editor's ability to edit the newspaper? Not at all.