Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. Almost four years ago, it was announced that the Church of the Annunciation in the parish of Finglas west, which holds 3,500 people, would be demolished because only a fraction of the capacity was going to mass and as the repair bill for the church was too prohibitive, it was better to knock it down. At the time, "Today with Seán O'Rourke" sent Paddy O'Gorman to ask parishioners in Finglas west their thoughts about this. One man who was asked what he thought said he thought it was ridiculous. When Paddy O'Gorman asked him if he ever went to mass he said he did not. Another man who was asked what he thought said he was disgusted because it was a very famous landmark and that he told people how to get places using it. When he was asked whether he ever went to mass he said he did not. The witnesses will get the gist of my fear, which is that ten years from now we will be speaking about the death of local or national newspapers as a relevant news source and when people are asked whether they ever bought them they will say they did not. This is the starting point. I hear what the witnesses are saying about the tax treatment of digital platforms but it is a starting point. I am passionate about this particular topic. Mr. Mulrennan gave me my first job in local media 20 years ago when he was chief executive of the Drogheda Independent Group. Back then we had bustling newsrooms and production on site. Those days are long gone.

Mr. Mulrennan set out the case for State funding for local newspapers similar to what has happened in local radio. In my area we have the Meath Chronicle and Cavan and Westmeath Herald, of which he is chief executive, and the local radio station LMFM. Mr. Mulrennan seeks funding of €2.6 million, equal to what was introduced last July for commercial radio, including local radio. Is there a basis for such Exchequer funding for local newspapers in other countries and, if so, at what level?

Mr. Crowley commented on tackling the dominance of advertising online. I say to him, and to the remote witnesses representing The Irish Times and the Business Post, that this is obviously where the game is with regard to having a free market and people going where they want to advertise their products. Notwithstanding my passion for print media, I do not think we will achieve the survival of one particular industry by overtly penalising another which is relevant in the here and now. I am interested in teasing out further the point on support for the industry and whether this would be through a reduction in VAT, on which the industry has lobbied us previously in the audiovisual room. It would be a retrograde step to move into a scenario of penalising one area just to try to support another that is having huge problems not only with regard to advertising revenue but also with decreasing sales. I ask the representatives of The Irish Times and the Business Post about their online subscriptions. It was reported they increased during Covid. I also ask Mr. Mulrennan whether this can be tackled through local media.

Mr. John Whittingdale, whom I have met, is the minister of state with responsibility for media and data in the UK. He is also passionate about print media. Only two weeks ago, he said that he would take a lot of convincing before he would provide further financial support for the industry either directly or through tax relief and that a plateau of support had been reached. He introduced the local democracy reporter scheme, whereby a portion of the BBC licence fee is used to pool moneys to provide reporters on the ground at council meetings and in courtrooms. I know local newspapers are struggling to provide this content. In some areas, we are not getting the newspapers we used to get in the past. This is something I will push for and I am interested to know whether the witnesses would support such a scheme in Ireland.