Mr. Séamus Dooley:

I am not able to answer that question. I know that it has been a positive experience in some areas. NewsBrands and Local Ireland, the two representative bodies, could supply that information. Some companies have been quite imaginative. I know of one newspaper group that arranged to have its newspaper delivered through Meals on Wheels during the first wave of lockdown in order to ensure its readers got the paper. That was imaginative. I do not have any more information on that.

The newspapers that the Chairman has talked about were owned by the O'Hanlons and the Smiths. There is a great tradition of family ownership in regional newspapers which meant that there was what I would call public-interest journalism. We talk about public-interest, or public-service, broadcasting but there is such a thing as public-service journalism. Public-interest or public-service journalism that local newspapers and radio do is sometimes overlooked. Our language around that is important. Reports on local deaths and local arts festivals are as much of public interest as "Prime Time". We need to get that message out there. Not everything has to be stuffy. Not everything within the covers of a newspaper is public-interest journalism but democracy suffers when local authority meetings or courts are not covered.

Lest I sound too positive about newspaper owners, there is a history of many of the larger companies not investing in journalism and the quid pro quofor any kind of state aid has to be a real commitment to investing in journalism. There must be some process to include commitments to investment in journalism for any international or UK companies that decide to sweep up and buy Irish papers. Quite frankly, the laws around competition, the second phase of acquisition under the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, are simply not adequate. We are not getting it. The experience about which Deputy Mattie McGrath spoke earlier is proof of that.