Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her observations. It is great to hear a Minister who is very much aware of the power and value of local radio. While these stations are ultimately commercial ventures, they serve a particular public need. They are not obliged to in the main but they feel they must. Many of us in this room have cited those occasions on which local radio becomes vital in terms of communicating directly with local communities. I hope that in how we look at how we structure and fund the provision of public service news gathering and dissemination in the future, and that is across print and broadcast, we strike that balance to ensure the public service remit of local radio is supported, as we have done recently with our print media. I hope a similar gesture of support is extended to local broadcasters. It is vital this happens. They have that public service remit and within the broader spectrum of supporting public service news gathering and dissemination and in acknowledgement of the very difficult financial circumstances in which the vast majority find themselves haemorrhaging advertising revenue to social media platforms. It is time to extend that hand of support as best we can in the context of an overall examination of how we fund public service journalism in the future.