Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and thank Ms Curtis and Ms Craig. I congratulate Ms Curtis on her appointment and thank both of our guests for their years of service to public service journalism. Ms Curtis said that, in lieu of the media commission report being published, the BAI will just get on, do its work as charged and meet its objectives. It is totally unfair to Ms Curtis, Ms Craig and the BAI that Ms Curtis had to say that because it is a bloody disgrace that the report is not published. The Cabinet needs to get its act together. I say that as a Government party member. We need to publish the report and deal with the issue of how we will fund public service journalism. I listened to the Tánaiste yesterday fluthering around in the Chamber saying we would have it in a couple of weeks. I have been listening to that for six months now. It is not good enough.

Journalism in this country is in a precarious position, especially from a funding point of view. We do not need to tiptoe around the issue. We need to be frank with the public regarding how we will fund public service journalism. Journalism costs money. Good journalism and research cost money. Newsrooms are being diminished, especially in print but now in audiovisual and visual as well. A little while ago, a new building was opened for a local newspaper close to my heart. As the speeches went on, the CEO stated that in ten or maybe even five years' time the paper would no longer have a print version but would be digital only. As a member of the National Union of Journalists, that vista depresses me.

While newspapers are goosed, I am equally fearful about the commercial viability of public service broadcasting. I note that the BAI's strategic objectives 14 and 15 reference the enhancement of financial sustainability. I will turn to Ms Craig on that point. She stated that she favoured the household charge. We know from the leaks that the media commission report suggests scrapping the licence fee and moving to Exchequer funding. Given there is a migration away from advertising on terrestrial television, which will threaten RTÉ, Virgin Media and television in general, does Ms Craig support the proposal to go for Exchequer funding knowing what we need to back proper journalism, both news and original content?