Ms Sammi Bourke:

I thank the Chair and members of the committee for the opportunity for myself and Ms Deirdre Veldon, vice chair, to address them today on behalf of NewsBrands Ireland, which is the representative body for Ireland’s national news publishers.

We welcome the opportunity to contribute to consideration of the revised general scheme of the Bill. NewsBrands Ireland is committed to a free and independent press, the sustainability of public service journalism, and a fair, competitive media landscape. NewsBrands is a founding member of the Office of the Press Ombudsman and the Press Council of Ireland, and our members adhere to the council’s code of practice and uphold the highest standards of journalistic integrity. We invest heavily in quality, fact-checked, multiplatform journalism that benefits the wider news ecosystem, with our content used by national and local broadcast services and search and social platforms.

In November 2024, we submitted our view on the original general scheme. While we welcomed elements of the proposed Bill, we raised concerns, particularly about the proposed media fund. It is disappointing to see that these concerns have not been addressed in the revised scheme. It is important for this committee to understand that, since our original submission in 2024, the pace of change in digital media has accelerated. News publishers now face existential challenges due to the widespread appropriation of our journalism by major tech and AI companies. Our content is being harvested without consent or compensation, undermining the commercial viability of journalism and threatening the public’s access to reliable information. It is against the backdrop of a highly fragmented and threatened media landscape that we share our views on the revised scheme. We welcome the broader definition of "public service content providers" and the shift toward a platform neutral media fund. However, we remain concerned that the allocation of just 7% of net licence fee receipts to the fund is inadequate, especially given the wider scope of eligible applicants. There is no guaranteed Exchequer support to supplement this fund. This is a gap that raises real concerns about the predictability and adequacy of financial support for public service content.

We support the revised scheme’s commitment to transparency and accountability in the administration of the media fund, including regular reporting and independent audit. However, further clarity is needed on eligibility, conditionality, application criteria and assessment procedures. These should reflect the essential role of independent news publishers, without creating unnecessary regulatory or administrative burdens. We note too references in head 23 to promoting media plurality and sector sustainability. In Ireland’s relatively small advertising market, the State broadcaster’s dual funding model raises concerns. As a publicly funded broadcaster, RTÉ can unfairly compete for digital advertising, leveraging content partly or fully funded by the State, while independent publishers must invest heavily in original content. RTÉ’s free-to-access digital platforms compete directly with publisher websites and apps, making it essential to introduce robust safeguards to prevent public funding from further distorting a market that has been disseminated by big tech platforms.

We must raise a critical concern regarding the scope of regulation. Any suggestion that video content hosted on news publishers’ websites could fall within the remit of Coimisiún na Meán is deeply problematic. News publishers are already regulated under the Press Council code of practice, which includes video content. Extending statutory regulation on this content would create a dual regulatory regime and undermine editorial independence. While we believe it is not the intention of the legislation, we strongly urge the committee to provide an explicit clarification on this point. We respectfully ask that the final legislation reflect these concerns and supports the continued viability of independent, trusted journalism, which remains a cornerstone of Irish democracy.