Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. This strikes me as something of a political hearing, as this is a politicised issue at the moment. It veers closely to the remit of the justice committee. Our joint Oireachtas committees cross over a number of times. I attended the Joint Committee on Justice about licensing laws, which affects culture and the arts. I welcome and have no objection to this hearing. I see it, in particular with the Press Council and the Press Ombudsman, as a chance to expand on a discussion we had at the public petitions committee last March 2023. I am also a member of that committee. We had a good conversation that time. We discussed resources. Ms McKay mentioned at the time that she would have liked to have had more resources to do outreach. There is a need for education about the work of the Press Council and the Press Ombudsman. They receive a lot of unsuitable complaints to the office. They would like more resources to make the office better known - it is not sufficiently well known. They were not sure that people understand a good complaints process is available to them. All of the newspapers have complaints processes, but if people are still frustrated there is an independent office. Many people do not understand that it is independent.

Ms McKay again says that the office needs to be funded but considerable thought will need to be given to how that should be done. I am conscious that the industry funds the regional and national titles and the Press Council of Ireland, which was set up in 2008. Ms McKay has mentioned that when the Government looked to introduce statutory press regulation, the Press Council of Ireland was set up by the press industry. I have looked at the annual reports and it seems there was a huge difference in funding and resources between 2008, when the council was set up, and where we were in 2022. Can the council comment on that? I welcome Mr. Montgomery to contribute to this question also. There was an annual spend of €704,000 in 2008 but in 2022 that was down to €339,000. Why is the funding reduced? Does the council anticipate that the funding will continue to reduce over the years ahead?