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

I thank each of the three of our witnesses for coming in to outline the very significant challenges they face. I believe Deputy Dillon mentioned earlier the Mayo Advertiser. I would be very aware and familiar with the work of the Galway Advertiserand, indeed, the Galway Independent, which was also a fine publications in its time.

Thinking of the Galway Advertiser; it does an extraordinary job in chronicling the life of a city and, indeed, of a county, the cultural life, and otherwise. The editorial of Declan Varley, the editor, every week is very much worth reading. If one wants to keep one’s finger on the pulse of the issues that "affect" the community of Galway, and I use that word in the widest possible sense, and oftentimes an editorial causes us to reflect on exactly where our city and county is going, that editorial is well worth reading.

It is curious because we had the representatives of the paid-for print media in with us on many occasions, particularly during the pandemic, and all of the concerns expressed by them are echoed by our witnesses. Mr. Ryan, in particular, outlined the fact that revenues accruing from a transition to digital are just not capable of sustaining the industry in the future. This gives me significant cause for concern when if I think of my 26-year-old son, and his generation. I buy newspapers all the time because my parents before me bought them and they just happened to lie around the house on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon where you would pick them up and read them. There is a whole generation of young people who simply do not have any interest in, and never will have any interest in, buying newspaper or reading a free sheet. That concerns me because if the model of consumption is moving on to a digital platform and if the revenues accruing from that are not sufficient to employ good journalists, we are going down a very slippery slope.

The witnesses are very much aware of the range of supports that are proposed for Ireland’s print media sector as a whole through the establishment of the commission and perhaps through redirecting funds arising from online to the print media, both free sheets and paid-for. If nothing else is done and if the landscape does not change for our witnesses, as publishers, what challenges will arise?

If we are to move to a point where our witnesses' businesses remain sustainable and they can continue to employ journalists and have the quality output and content they wish to have, what supports will they need which perhaps are not in place now? In other words, if our witnesses were the Minister responsible for the sector right now - I know the Minister has a very significant belief in our print media, both local and national - what kind of supports would they be putting in place?

We are here as legislators and policymakers. Where do we need to go to ensure that in ten years’ time, I can still pick up the Galway Advertiserand read Declan’s editorial on a Thursday morning? To be frank, I read it on a device because there is no circulation of it where I live. I am not suggesting we need to start delivering to a caravan or to small villages. As there is a real cultural and community building value to what our witnesses' publications do across all their different communities, to lose that would be an exceptionally sad chapter in the development of our media output in Ireland. Where is the industry going and what do we need to do to support it? I know the 9% VAT cut has given a lifeline. I will not mention the editor by name, but one editor said to me, post that particular support mechanism being put in place, that he was in a very deep hole and could now see the top of the hole. That is how he described the lifeline that this VAT measure extended to him which, obviously, did not apply to our witnesses. What other lifelines can we put in place in the medium term and long term?