Ms Gabrielle Cummins:

I thank Deputy Mythen. One of the key elements he mentioned is about paywalls. It is important to highlight that radio and access to news is obviously free. It is really important we protect that. That is the reason we are reiterating the importance of funding local and regional radio, especially the types of stations such as ours. I run Beat 102 103, which targets 15- to 34-year-olds. There is a fleet of stations all over the country targeting this age bracket. We are all talking about the importance of protecting truth and making sure people have access to factual information. We have been doing that for 20 years, as have all the youth stations all over the country. Seven out of ten 15- to 34-year-olds listen to one of our stations. It is vital that this access to free factual information is protected. That is why we reiterate the need for the levy to be abolished and for our work to be supported. Many people have mentioned today how difficult it is for us to fund journalists. That is getting more and more difficult. When I started out with Beat, I was news editor and it was about getting a story on air and online. Now all our of journalists are multi-platform providers and we have much more to do to get that factual information out to as many people as possible. As the biggest radio station in Ireland, we have 183,000 followers on TikTok but it is really important we get the right information to that key audience who will be listening and trying to find the correct information in the future. Therefore, we need to be protected.