Ms Deirdre Ní Choistín:

On the Reuters digital news reports, Ireland scores very high on trust. We are 11th out of 48 countries so we are very high on trust in news and public service media, which is to be welcomed because it is not so high, for example, in the UK and elsewhere.

Regarding the schemes, any scheme that supports journalism is to be welcomed. I understand there are difficulties for some of the other media but for Irish-language media in particular, it is to be welcomed. Anywhere we can increase access to journalism in the Irish language has to be welcomed.

In terms of podcasting, again we are one of the higher countries in the report, with 12% listening to news podcasts. There is a clear demand for an alternative way to access news. With regard to the Bill, we need to think multi-platform rather than seeing it as a threat. It is serving the audience where they want to listen to content. At the moment, it is podcasts but that might change. We should be able to facilitate that as a media provider and provide content where the audience wants to find it.