Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No, I never did any broadcasting but I try to get my message out to the media. I do other types of casting but not broadcasting.

The recommendation presented measures which member states could take in six areas. These included: ownership; regulation of new communications; technologies and services for digital broadcasting; content; editorial responsibility; and public service broadcasting and support measures for the media. All of these areas remain of significant concern. Little if anything has been done at Government level to protect consumers and citizens from the bias that inevitably emerges when the media, in all its forms, are controlled by people of one dominant ideology. We have heard much of that in the debate this evening.

Of course, the Internet and social media have changed the landscape considerably. I salute websites such as TipperaryTimes.ie, run by Paddy Ryan, a Templemore man, as well as AgriLand.ieand similar sites. They are doing what the media should be doing at certain times in exposing situations. I salute RTE as well. We bash the station often enough. The "RTE Investigates" programme on Monday night offered an excellent exposé of the shocking scandal, cover-up, massaging of the figures and deception over waiting lists. I compliment those involved.

It is now possible, by and large, to express views and opinions that would never have seen the light of day in the printed press 20 years ago. This brings with it challenges and opportunities. We have seen that. We have heard debates in recent days about abuse at Facebook and what goes on in Facebook. People are more informed than ever before. They have the opportunity to hold the Government to account in a manner that would once have been inconceivable.

Monopolies are seldom, if ever, a good idea. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is toothless and useless and has no effect in any area. We have seen that in many big business areas. Given how important the media are to a functioning democracy, it is even more important that the public view is not shaped by a media monopoly, be it that of Mr. O'Brien or anyone else.

I recall that Denis O'Brien had three daughters fine but was troubled by all the fellas who were coming to court them. Members might remember the song, "O'Brien had no place to go" which was played on a lot of local radio stations, including Deputy Catherine Murphy's local station, I am sure. We are talking here about a different Denis O'Brien, however.

There is wholesale avoidance of covering the banks and vulture funds that are evicting people every day of the week, as well as what is going on in the courts. That is hardly getting a syllable in the media. Why? It is because of all of the advertisements and the property pages, as Deputy Broughan said earlier. That is not democracy. That is not decent media. I occupied a bank one day with a family from Wexford who got an awful beating by thugs on the road. I was weak from doing interviews with every media outlet, including RTE, but not a syllable appeared anywhere because a big public relations firm marched in and all of the media outlets were threatened with advertisements being pulled if they mentioned a word about it. That is despicable in a democracy but that is what is going. It should not be allowed to happen.

It is often said that if we do not read the newspapers, we are uninformed but if we do read them, we are misinformed. That is a fact. The issue of President Trump and how he was elected was mentioned earlier. The media were not very kind to him but people saw through what was going on there. Mr. Trump spoke about fake news and there certainly is a lot of fake news out there. In my native county, a monopoly is buying up every parcel of land that can be bought. Coolmore is a wonderful group in the equine industry, in terms of its prowess and the employment it provides. However, it is the new landlord in Tipperary, the new Cromwell. The only media outlet that will print any words that I utter here on the matter is AgriLand.ie. None of the other newspapers want to touch it because Coolmore is a big, fancy company and it is neither sexy nor proper to criticise it. They mix in the same circles and there is huge sponsorship at stake. That is a denial of what is going on. Families are being destroyed but the media are not interested. It is disgraceful. It was covered on Tipperary Mid West Radio, to be fair. We have good newspapers in Tipperary, including South Tipp Today,the Nationalist and Munster Advertiser for whom the journalist Eamonn Lacey works and The Munster Express. These are local papers which report local news, thankfully. The national newspapers, however, are not interested which is a pity. There are a lot of very good journalists out there and I am not blaming them for not covering evictions or the occupation of Allsop's, for example. I am blaming the editorial staff. The journalists are interested and come along but when their stories are ready to go, they are pulled because of advertising. Money decides what is printed in newspapers and that has no place in a modern democracy.

This Bill is an effort to address the problem. I am surprised at Fianna Fáil. We might organise a training course for them on how to vote because it seems that they will be abstaining again tonight. There are three voting buttons in here and perhaps they are confused.

We are where we are with the media. There is some open and honest reporting by journalists but at editorial level, that is not happening. I have seen that in so many areas. I have seen it with the cartels in the concrete industry in the context of Roadstone but there has not been a syllable about that either. The media will not criticise cartels like that because they are too powerful. Advertisements and money are more important than the true stories. Deputy Broughan referred earlier to the pyrite issue and for years attempts were made to raise that but it was not covered because certain cement people were too powerful. The small people have been driven out of that industry. We have met small suppliers at Oireachtas committees who told us that the Competition Authority stood idly by and told them that it did not have enough resources to investigate. We have the same situation now with companies buying up other companies. The Competition Authority approves the takeover but they are only taking companies over to close them down so that they will have a monopoly in the market. That is bordering on corruption. I will not say that we have a lazy, inept and lethargic media because we do not; we have good journalists. I know many of them and they work hard but editorial staff are bought and kept and they are not fair or democratic. They have a duty to report issues like those I have just mentioned but they are taboo. So many people have horror stories to tell about bullying, intimidation and evictions and about their fear but there is not a syllable in the newspapers about it. In terms of the Citizens' Assembly and the pro-life argument, again there is a huge media bias against the ordinary people of Ireland who have views they are entitled to express. They want to express them but they are not catered for.

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