Dr. Roderick Flynn:

The Future of Media Commission, which provided the most recent opportunity to have a good look at public service broadcasting and what is needed in that regard, was not asked to address the question of what a healthy public sphere needs in terms of a radio, broadcasting and media sector. It just accepted the established status quo. We do things backwards in that we start from the position of having a certain amount of money and then we figure out how to spend it. That is a mistake. I am not blaming the Future of Media Commission for this because it was not tasked to look at it. If I were king for a day, I would start with the question of what a healthy public sphere needs and what the role of the media would be in that regard. When I answered that, I would ask how much it would cost to implement. Then we would have a number and I would work backwards from that. The number might be terrifying. It could be €500 million.