Professor Brian MacCraith:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. I will call in my colleagues on specific matters, but I will try to deal with some of the issues he raised. We were very conscious of the importance of local print and broadcast media outlets. We had a significant engagement with Craol regarding community radio and so on. As some members have mentioned already and as we have heard throughout the consultation process, the pandemic has proven the importance of this, particularly for rural communities. We do not want to follow what has happened in other parts of the world including in the US with what are called media deserts or news deserts. We want to ensure this happens at a local level. It is forming an active part of our deliberations and we will be commenting on this. We will be seeking to address supports in this regard, but I cannot be more specific than that.

The Deputy also mentioned media literacy, which is another critical part of what we are discussing and goes back into the broader misinformation and disinformation situation.

There are some bodies like Craol that are addressing media literacy already. We will comment on its importance and protecting our society in that regard.

If I talk about licences, it brings us to our deliberations on what is a sustainable funding model for public service broadcasting. We are not in a position to comment specifically on that. The Deputy asked how one could use income to support the Irish language. Returning to what I said earlier, it is correctly an important part of our deliberations and we will make specific comments and recommendations in this regard.

I will turn to Ms Holliman to add more depth to my answers on local media outlets. She will provide a more informed commentary.