Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My first question is for Ms Siobhán Holliman. Professionally, she is au faitwith the situation of local newspapers. There are over 50 local newspapers affiliated to the Press Council of Ireland but many are in desperate financial straits. The Tánaiste has been quizzed by me in the Seanad about supports for local newspapers commensurate with what has happened in local radio. He stated in the Dáil that the business model is broken and has to change. Is that a view shared by the commission?

Some people would like to paint local and regional newspapers as dinosaurs and as an outdated media. If that is the case, we are throwing local journalism and local reporting of important events to the wolves. If local newsrooms are not supported, they will die. How strongly will the commission support local media? If we go down the route of the UK and the US, we will not have the breeding ground for journalists to go to a national level nor the recording of important events.

I welcome Ms Sinéad Burke, a fellow Navan person. I compliment her on the excellent thematic dialogue that she chaired on how available the media output to an increasingly diverse audience is, such as to people with a disability, the LGBT community, as well as representatives from Black Irish Media. It made sure they were not just tokenistic characters when represented in the media.

It is abundantly clear from these hearings that traditional media, such as the big beast of television, are dying. They are being replaced by online media, such as Twitter and Facebook. How will Ms Burke and the commission deal with this? We have seen high-profile stances in the UK with the Premier League having a complete social media blackout when it comes to Black Lives Matter. What is the commission's stance on this? Progress has been made among traditional media outlets such as television but they have changed drastically where the game is now online.