Mr. S?amus Dooley:

I would agree in relation to the European media Bill. There is what I might call a high fog density. But that is inevitable. It is at a very early stage. It has to go to the European Parliament. It is not even certain at the moment what committee it will go through. We have been relying on European legal advice and working with the European Federation of Journalists. This is going to be a slow burner and will take some time.

My concern with the media commission in Ireland is that it will not have sufficient resources to do properly all of the jobs that it has been charged with. The budget, which is by and large fairly positive, and the commission report dovetail reasonably well. Many of the measures, like the democracy reporter scheme and court reporting protect public interest journalism. To go back to Deputy Munster's point, there was some concern that it might be politicised but I trust that as a State and in a modern Republic, we should be able to put those structures in place. What I would do is move the administration of the sound and vision fund, the local democracy funding, training and the promotion of gender into a media training and development agency, which would be separate.

The manner in which people are appointed to RTE and TG4 in looking at this question in the media role as a monitor we make exactly the saim

I suggest this because no one body can do that. I am nervous that this is the same body that would decide who gets money for training and development and that allocates funds. There is no structure or indication as to what role there would be for the NUJ. There is no consultation with industry in relation to any of this. I have a concern that the same body that has all that power to give grants has the power to decide who gets a licence for a radio station, to decide who is allowed to buy other radio stations and to investigate media mergers. I do not believe that one body should have all that power. That is not to say that I do not have huge respect for the personnel within the BAI but I do not believe that any one body has the capacity or the competence to do that. I also think that the vesting of that level of power is a concern and that it does not reflect the spirit of some of what is in the BAI, although Dr. Flynn may have a different view.