Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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It still concerns me. There is an awful lot to be said for public service investment, and we all accept that. I want to echo what Deputy Malcolm Byrne said about public service broadcasting as a public good. However, it is important that the public recognises it to be a good and they will only recognise it to be a good if there is trust. On a range of issues in recent years, issues on which people have divergent and sometimes passionately held views, there has been a real lack of diversity in mainstream media, whether we want to cite migration, aspects of the way the Covid pandemic crisis was covered or issues I have often spoken about, like bioethical controversies, family issues, social issues and so on. However, if every organisation wants to suck at the teat of the State, if you will pardon the agricultural expression, the problem is that people end up censoring themselves and, basically, end up falling into line - there has to be a certain way of talking about things, we do not want to be seen as awkward and so on. Is it possible for us to get to new ground where there is greater diversity? It is sometimes not about the misinformation. It is about the exclusion of whole points of view, the questions that are not asked and the people who are not brought on.

In a sense, Virgin Media is a significant competitor of RTÉ. Does Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin agree there is a problem? Does she reflect on it? Does she consider it in terms of looking at the diversity within Virgin Media’s own ranks or, like Kevin Bakhurst, would she consider that as a kind of North Korean solution?