Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 30:

In page 24, line 17, after “State,” to insert “among the five most read newspapers,”.

This goes back to the more thorny question of advertisements in the context of which publications they should go in, the criteria for those publications and whether there should be a digital version, a hard copy or both. There is a formula of words that seems to be used regularly in legislation which has been overtaken in terms of the balance of digital and hard copy media, as well as those that are more popular with readers or viewers. With these two amendments, we are trying to ensure, for example that where newspapers are being used, they are the most read newspapers, in the first instance, but also whether there should be an option in terms of whether advertisements should be in hard copy or electronic form. There are some of us who, even when we are reading digital, do everything in the PDF copy because we like the old-fashioned formatting and do not pay attention to the digital format. These amendments make relatively sensible propositions and I am interested to hear the Minister of State's response.

Amendment No. 100 seeks to delete the phrase "one or more than one" and replace it with that of "at least two". This is with respect to notice of register or actions. The purpose of it is to allow the Minister to give notice to a landowner in the most effective way possible under section 2(a).

Amendment No. 101 seeks to delete the phrase "in a national newspaper" and replace it with that of "at least in a national newspaper and in local media through a local newspaper and/or a local radio station, where they exist". For those of us who live in Dublin, we often forget that what we consider the national or State-wide media is only that in name. In many other areas, local media, be it the local newspapers or radio stations, are actually the first port of call for the overwhelming majority of people. The Minister of State will know that from his constituency. If we want to get an adequate reach of notice, it is important that we include not just what is traditionally known as the national media, or national newspapers, but local and provincial media as well.