Ms Susan McKay:

No, that is the bit that is missing. At the moment we already have members that do not have a paper publication. They are solely online publications, such as thejournal.ie, and gripped.ie and ontheditch.com recently joined. However, the area the Senator refers to has yet to be decided and will be the subject of discussion in the coming period before the defamation Bill is finalised, that is, where a publication, such as RTÉ, has an online publication that is not identical to what it broadcasts. Membership of the Press Council must be voluntary. If a change was made, it would simply be that such publications would be able to join the Press Council. It is important to the ethos of the Press Council that membership is voluntary as in joining a publication makes a commitment to meet the standards set by the Press Council.