Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply and note that he has achieved in the coming legislation something that was never achieved by one of his predecessors, Michael D. Higgins, who is now President of Ireland and who eyed this particular pathway back in the 1990s with some enthusiasm but never got to it. Under his portfolio, the Minister now has an extremely important position in regulating the print media.

I know the Minister's principal role will be to supervise plurality and acquisitions and mergers, but does he have any plan to impose or propose new interventionist measures which would set a standard or charter for the newspapers and introduce a neo-public sector ethos to the private media? In particular, now that this transfer is being made, does he have any plan to introduce privacy laws to control the print media which have been part of some of his colleagues' interests and declarations in recent times?

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