Dr. Niall Muldoon:

We were delighted to see Coimisiún na Meán come into being. We were engaged with the ongoing committee that came together to advise on the establishment of the commission in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. We have a member on the committee. I have engaged myself with the commissioner on a number of occasions. We have also advised it on its youth advisory panel. Currently, the youth advisory panel is set at 18 to 25 years but it wants to move down and I am going to help with that as well.

From our point of view, it is fantastic to have the commission there. The legislation is strong and the commission has shown itself to be willing to go after the multinationals where that is needed. Again, we can see the pushback, which is interesting to watch. I read in the business section of a newspaper at the weekend that there are complaints about how rigid we are becoming. It outlined how Europe is starting to make it much more difficult for entrepreneurs and multinationals to do their job and stated that America is much more open, aggressive, entrepreneurial and innovative. It was also stated that innovation might die in Europe because we are trying to regulate. I will take that any day of the week. I would rather lose a few innovators than for children to get caught up. Even with the best will in the world we will always be behind the companies that are innovating but we have got to be strong in the regulation that we set up. Ireland is a real leader in that regard. Coimisiún na Meán has shown itself to be willing and able to do its job. We are going to give it every backing we can. We will probably set up quarterly meetings to engage on children’s issues.