Mr. Séamus Dooley:

On that question, I would not even attempt a figure relating to the titles spoken about by the Senator. There is a reality. One of the major failures is that successive Ministers have not used the power under the amended competition Act under which there is a two-tier approach. First, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission asks whether a business case is required. One then goes to the Minister, who checks a list that includes editorial standards, resources and amendments. We saw this during the previous committee in the context of the attempted acquisition of Celtic Media Group by Independent News and Media. What was interesting is that the Minister of the day did use that power, it came to the previous committee, the committee interrogated it and that deal eventually did not happen. In the case of Iconic Newspapers acquiring The Tullamore Tribuneand The Midland Tribune, the Minister of the day did not exercise that right so the committee did not have the power to ask what Iconic Newspapers planned to do with the future of two long-standing newspapers in Offaly and whether there was going to be synergy between counties Laois and Offaly with counties Kildare, Tipperary and Limerick then thrown in. That discussion did not take place. The situation now is that a person can walk into Roscrea and buy two competing titles with the same story, the same headline and the same byline. How can you do that and expect the sector to thrive? The reality is that media diversity matters. Tipperary and Offaly, and I say so as an Offaly man, are two different continents with different local authority areas and different sporting interests. I used the example of The Tullamore Tribune and The Midland Tribune because it is the one I know best. The Senator spoke about Longford. The reality is that a member of the House of Lords came in and was allowed to buy up The Longford Newsand The Roscommon Champion, of which I was editor. They are both gone. The same individual acquired a newspaper in Athlone. It is now gone. Part of that is because nobody was listening. I said that we called for a commission many years ago. Regarding ownership, one of the reasons for this is because politicians are very reluctant to take on people who buy ink by the gallon. That has traditionally been the response. Politicians are nervous of newspaper owners. That has always been an issue. It was a lack of political will and we are now paying the price. It is not too late. We can look at funding models and look for assistance but if we do not do it soon, it will be too late and we will all regret it.

I have a vested interest. I am unashamedly here because I represent journalists but I also know as a former regional newspaper editor that the local newspaper and local radio station are the heartbeat of the community. I also represent workers in RTÉ and it is great to come to a meeting of this committee and not have a whingeing session because RTÉ is a very easy target. God knows, I criticise Mr. Lynch and his colleagues frequently in negotiations but on this, we are on the one page. If we were ever to reform the licence fee, now is the time to do it because there is a public understanding that nothing comes from nothing. If we have a future pandemic and we do not fund public service broadcasting properly, we should not assume that the same service will be there because it cannot be. RTÉ has delivered a quality service despite the funding model. I do not believe this can continue. There is a real issue here about the public service remit. In the same way as is the case with local radio stations, it is only so long that one can stretch an elastic band. It does eventually break.