Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have always been aware of the impact and power of the concentration of media in certain companies. The Ceann Comhairle will remember that in 1997, when we went out on that fateful election day, the Irish Independenthad the headline "Payback time", which was directed against the outgoing Fine Gael and Labour Government. In the run-up to the 2007 election, we saw the rapprochement between the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the Independent group of newspapers, which also provided a fortunate background to his going to sleep as a defeated Taoiseach and waking as a continuing Taoiseach in that election.

In the report from Ms Lynn Boylan, MEP, she references the Media Reform Coalition report in the UK, which indicates a clear concentration because of three newspaper groups controlling 71% of the newspapers bought in the UK.

I remember the 1992 election in the UK in particular. The Sunday Times, which is part of the Times Group, printed the famous headline urging people to hold their noses and vote Tory after 18 disgraceful years of a reactionary Conservative Government. Of course, following the efforts of Mr. Blair and his triangulation policies or strategy, News International changed course in the run-up to 1997 and began to support the Blairite approach. Unfortunately or fortunately, some years later News International changed tack again. In the past two UK elections, we have seen relentless assaults on the UK Labour Party. We have also seen the relentless campaign by the Conservative newspaper cartel and media platforms. They advocated against the European Union with all manner of spurious scares and claims. Undoubtedly, this formed the backdrop to the concerns of the British people over developments in Europe.

I warmly congratulate Deputies Catherine Murphy and Shortall and the Social Democrats on the work they have done in respect of the Media Ownership Bill and for bringing it before the House today. Deputy Catherine Murphy has had a long interest in the question of media concentration. Her interest began long before the Siteserv issue arose in the House.

The intention behind the Bill is to protect the plurality of the Irish media landscape, which is a critical foundation stone for a democratic society. It would allow for the amendment of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 and enable the provisions to be applied retrospectively. The Social Democrats Bill is an attempt to ensure that the 20% public interest test that applies to any media merger now could be applied retrospectively to any individual with more than a 20% interest in media platforms.

I listened to the Minister's speech earlier. I am unsure as to what he is doing or whether he will do anything. The position is weak in this area. The Competition Act 2002, the Broadcasting Act 2009 and the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 do not seem to be performing properly on the basis of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland report on ownership and control of media businesses in Ireland for 2012-14. Lynn Boylan, MEP, commissioned a subsequent study, entitled Report on the Concentration of Media Ownership in Ireland. The report clearly showed we are high on the scale. We are not exactly at the level of Russia, Turkey or Saudi Arabia. However, we are certainly up on the scale and there is considerable concentration of ownership. The report also references the report in the UK which showed that concentration was at 71%.

As others have said, the media landscape is changing dramatically and there has been an incredible change in how people are accessing daily news. Hard copy newspapers are effectively dying as more and more of us read freely online. We have seen how the millennium generation tend to eschew buying newspapers. They access the news on free sites or else access free articles in newspapers that are trying to migrate onto websites. Online news sites include Google, Yahoo, those of our newspapers, TheJournal.ie, BreakingNews.ie, Huffington Postand Mediapart in France. These sites are being used by people and are accessed using smart phones by people on daily commutes. The newspaper culture seems to be disappearing. Some sites require subscription but it is difficult to get the generation that has become used to free news to begin to pay for it now. The current newspaper groups have a major advantage in trying to migrate from the hard-copy newspapers to the digital platform. They have a considerable head start over the rest of us who might decide to establish online news sites.

Having said that, media ownership remains concentrated. Indeed, Irish media has always been concentrated. Other speakers have referred to the same chorus every year on budget policy. Most articles advocate for cuts in spending and staying the fiscal course. Many supported the blanket bank guarantee. Historically, the Irish Independentwas fiercely and bitterly opposed to Independence. The Irish Timesrepresented the old Unionist ruling class. Indeed, Eamon de Valera and his colleagues had to try to establish their newspaper platform, the Irish Press. Like many others, I greatly regretted the demise of the Irish Pressbecause we lost a fourth essential voice.

Of course, local radio has been a major success. However, efforts to launch serious competition to RTE television and radio on a national level, with TV3 and UTV Ireland, have been poor enough.

We have seen the continuous growth of the power of Independent News and Media. This brings us to the main purpose of today's Bill, that is, to protect both diversity of ownership and control of media businesses in the State and the plurality of the media. It is not healthy for the principals of one group to have extraordinary control of the hard copy newspaper industry and, at the same time, control of a swathe of radio news sites.

I referred earlier to the report commissioned by Lynn Boylan, MEP, which provided some invaluable figures for Ireland and the UK. It refers to us scoring 0.7 on the scale from zero to 1, where 1 represents total concentration of media power. We have seen in the past how people have spoken with one voice. Previously, I tried relentlessly to raise the issue of pyrite problems and problems with building in this House. It was a long time before the two major newspaper groups, Independent News and Media and The Irish Timestook up the story. For years, they offered extensive property supplements, with nice cosy write-ups about developers' plans and so on. Indeed, they are back at it again. The property supplements are in one section but they are funding the newspapers. Then there is the editorial side. Some of the famous journalists include Stephen Collins, Pat Leahy and John Downing. There is little evidence of them writing articles about the influence of the property industry on the newspapers and what happened to our country in 2009. I warmly support the Social Democrats Bill.

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