Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Context Phase
Mr. Harry Browne:
There was a very quick summary decision by the Competition Authority. It did not raise any competition issues and the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment approved it. It did not go to a phase two process. It was dealt with very quickly. As I said earlier, the reason there was no competition issue was that the newspaper had not yet brought its role in print property advertising into the online sphere. Essentially, they were complementary rather than potentially competing areas.