Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The issue of media ownership and the concentration of that ownership in the hands of limited numbers of individuals is a sensitive and critical issue for Governments in every developed country. It is all the more so here due to our small scale and the relative ease with which this concentration can occur. The reason this issue is such a critical one stems obviously from the critical role the media plays in our democracy and the potentially harmful effects an overconcentration of media ownership may have on the freedom of the press and on the plurality of views available to the public.

Last year, the Government approved the draft heads of a new consumer and competition Bill, as submitted by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, who has primary responsibility for promulgating it. Part of that decision involved giving effect in legislation to the recommendations of the report of the advisory group on media mergers and to transfer responsibility for public interest considerations relating to media mergers from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to my Department.

The Government remains committed to implementing a set of robust measures that will allow for a transparent and objective assessment of the public good in media mergers cases and to do so as quickly as possible. Officials from my Department are actively engaged in the drafting process and I have written to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on the subject on several occasions around the Bill's content. My primary concerns are that it pays sufficient attention to the preservation of media plurality and to diversity in media, as well as providing that the powers are sufficient to ensure the Government can act when these are threatened.

The consumer and competition Bill 2012 is one of a large number of Bills currently being drafted by the Attorney General's office. I gather it is likely to be later in the year before a draft Bill is ready to be published by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and brought before the Oireachtas. In the meantime, the existing provisions set out in the Competition Act 2002 continue to apply.

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