Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not on the committee but my background is in regional press. I spent all of my working life before I came into politics in the regional press. I would have crossed paths with Seamus Dooley many moons ago when he was in the latter years of his career on the Roscommon Champion, and we spent a night in a pub in Roscommon, although we did not actually work together. I worked with Linda O'Reilly, so it is great to see her here. I think she was the only person who ever had the temerity to ask Eugene McGee for a pay rise so she should be commended for that. It is great to see all of the witnesses here.

I am struck by two points, one from Frank Mulrennan and one from Mr. O’Reilly. It is that the funding model for the industry is broken.We are looking at Sound and Vision, the broadcasting levy and what was done with VAT, but I believe all of those are fundamentally just sticking plasters. I think everybody in the wider public would agree we have an intrinsic regional, local and community media that will not be found anywhere else in the world. In particular, if we look at what is coming from Europe at the moment, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine was looking yesterday at geographical indication, GI, status and the new regulations coming in from the EU. There are geographical indicators in the regional press in Ireland that will not be replicated anywhere else in the world. We are dealing with intrinsically national sports, with our teanga náisiúnta and with all of these things.

There is a need and probably an opportunity. I am struck by the fact the organisations are here collectively as newspapers and radio. I always feel one of the two is going to miss out in the way they are battling for funding at the minute, and I think they need to come as one voice. There is this thing of representations being made from the regional press and then from the local radio station, whereas they need to come as one. We need to protect community and local media, regardless of whether it is done digitally or in print.

The model has changed. When I started with Eugene McGee, at the first interview I had with him when he was giving me the job, he was perplexed because people always asked him how his newspaper was selling. He said, “It does not matter what I say as it is only 15% of my income. It is how many ads I sell.” Yet, by the time the crash came, most newspapers were lucky if they were 50:50 between advertising and circulation. For many of those small newspapers now, unfortunately, their circulation revenue is probably bigger than their advertising, and it is dwindling. In terms of the funding model being put forward, young people are not going to buy newspapers and they are not going to pay subscriptions. I appreciate and admire the work the witnesses are doing on this. However, I have three young children and not one of them will ever take out a subscription because they do not put a premium on news content.

The problem for the wider society is that people go onto a website and they look at the headings. There is not a journalist in the room who has not had the problem where a sub-editor put on a heading that the journalist did not like, and the journalist gets tremendous flak because the headline does not reflect what is in the article. That is a huge problem. Dr. Wheatley bore this out in regard to the research which showed that young people are not engaging with news. That is a worry.

I am conscious that I am rambling so I will finish on two points. I believe the industry needs to come together as one, as regional media, which is its biggest opportunity. It needs to come with an entirely new and innovative funding model. All of those pieces are there but, realistically, how long-term are any of them? In the lifetime of any profession, nothing is more precarious than politics. Governments come and go, and there are going to be different attitudes but, ultimately, it is a case of ó ghlúin go glúin, from generation to generation.

The nub of what the witnesses are speaking about today is safeguarding the industry’s future. However, anything we have so far is really a sticking plaster. If we look at a lot of what is being done, an example is the work the local enterprise offices, LEOs, are doing with their e-voucher scheme. If I set up a business tomorrow morning and go into the enterprise office, the first thing they will do is offer me a €2,000 e-voucher to set up my website. I have been making the point that because small businesses are such an intrinsic part of rural Ireland, if the punter wants, he should be able to spend that e-voucher on his regional paper, on his local radio or on developing a website. That is a quick and easy modification and it gets over this issue. We saw what happened with the VAT reduction.

I have great empathy for the journalists. Any time they put up a report that may be construed as in any way favourable to the Government, the immediate kickback online is that it is getting payback for its VAT rebate, which is not the case. The Government saw there was an immediate need to do this and that is why it was done.

My final point concerns the abuse of journalists. This is definitely leading to people making a conscious decision not to go into journalism, and the NUJ has articulated this very well.

Some of the most creative voices in this country, such as the author, John Connolly, came through journalism. It is a university in itself. Real quality has come through journalism. The vitriol at the moment in the public space that is directed at newspaper, digital and television journalists is a damning indictment of modern society. I ask the industry to come together and do something collectively. The industry needs to take a stand. We saw that in East Wall in the past couple of days when a TG4 reporter was interfered with as she was doing her broadcast. That was not the first time we saw it. Everybody in this room appreciates the huge work of TG4. If you were to pick on a media outlet in this country, the last one you should pick on is TG4 yet self-styled journalists in their wisdom saw fit to pick on a female journalist. It was the most despicable of acts. I empathise. It gets very little exposure. We see it particularly with female journalists if they get a high profile. In any career, whether it is journalism or farming and you read The Farmers’ Journal,you want to be the best in your sphere. If any of my daughters said she wants to go into journalism now I would nearly actively discourage her. You want them to do the best they can do in any career.

I will give two challenges in conclusion: to come together as a collective body, and to look for that funding model to safeguard the sector for 25 years. The seeds are there in a couple of areas but it is necessary to think outside the box and come up with something where the money is not coming directly from the Government. There is a need for something like an e-voucher scheme, where businesses can access money and have to give it specifically to the media. The other item I have highlighted relates to the abuse.