Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely, and that is not being changed by this, but the Minister is playing with words here. She may correct me if I am wrong, because I do not know where it is in the legislation and I would be surprised she is replicating it in legislation because, as she knows, in relation to her argument earlier, it is not good when drafting legislation to replicate something, and we are not replicating anything here, but RTÉ has an obligation at the moment to carry news content across all its channels. This amendment does not leave that legal requirement in place. That is a very dangerous road to go down. We are saying RTÉ can provide its news content by increasing the amount of news content on RTÉ Radio 1, which has a lot of news and current affairs content anyway, and that can cover the requirement to provide it on the likes of 2FM. That may be the only independent channel in this jurisdiction from which young people get unbiased news content. It is not controlled by algorithms and neither should it be. I urge the Minister again to ensure every single citizen of this country has access to unbiased, fair and equitable news content and ensure that is provided for, which I believe is not the case in the current drafting of the legislation.