Mr. Johnny O'Hanlon:

Local Ireland and Newsbrands had a constructive meeting with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. She listened intently to much of what the committee has heard today. She made the point that the Future of Media Commission would examine all of those issues and that before she could make an informed decision, she would await the outcome of the commission's deliberations.

A question was asked earlier about the aid given in other countries. The countries that are providing direct aid with contributions towards journalism in various forms, whether it is a direct subsidy or wage employment subsidies, are Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Belgium, Denmark and France. There are significant tax subsidies in other countries, particularly to VAT, on both newspaper sales and digital sales. There are significant subsidies in Europe, Australia and some Asian countries too. We are not breaking the mould here. This has already happened for many years. We would be happy to supply the committee with the specifics of those subsidies.