Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Speaking of striking a balance, let us throw a few more statistics into the discussion. Denis O'Brien's operation owns a 29% stake in Independent News and Media. It has 100% control of Communicorp. This includes titles such as The Independent, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent, the Evening Herald and 13 local titles. It has a 45% share of national newspapers. On top of that, it also has radio stations including Today FM, Newstalk, Spin 1038 and Spin South West. It has 21% of listeners but probably more than 21% of the news agenda because of Newstalk being part of the operation. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which reports to the Minister, carried out a report on ownership in Ireland from 2012 to 2014. It recommended that anything above a 20% share in a media company was too much and allowed the individual to exert influence over content and management appointments. Throughout Europe there are laws which limit how much of the media any one company or person can own. Will the Minister introduce legislation such as this which will apply retrospectively?

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