Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have two media questions for the Taoiseach. I listened here to the sweet words that were blown up to our friends in the Press Gallery about the importance of the media and how it is central to our democracy. We heard a lot of that in recent weeks. I agree with the Taoiseach.

It is interesting today to note that we have the head of global policy in Facebook coming before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions about Cambridge Analytica and the effect of some of the new media companies on the democratic system. I think Facebook is more of a publisher than a platform. The evidence of that in this country is that Facebook and Google are taking in more than €300 million in advertising revenue that previously went, by and large, to Irish media companies. It is the same with Netflix. Figures out today show that its revenue is growing by 20% a year. Spotify's revenue is growing by 30% per year. Sky is taking €500 million in profit out of the country and Irish media are on their knees.

I looked to find what the Taoiseach has said and done about the situation. The first thing he did was to get rid of the digital Minister from his Department. I looked at the Facebook page of the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Breen. I learnt a lot about County Clare, a county I love, but I learnt next to nothing about what he had to say in the past year about the digital issues of our time.

I sought to find out what the Taoiseach had to say when he went to see Facebook. He was in the beautiful roof garden in the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. The Taoiseach said his main purpose was to assure Facebook that the pro-business, pro-enterprise, pro-trade policies that have been pursued in the past would continue to be followed into the future. He could not have been clearer that we would be pro-business. There was not a word about good regulation and high standards, and there has not been a word from the Taoiseach about his thoughts on the matter since we heard about Cambridge Analytica. That is important, given the importance of those companies to us. They are important to my city. Thousands of jobs are involved. We have to get them and we will hold onto them when we have high standards. The world is seeking to invest in places that are not just pro-business, pro-trade and whatever we can do for you, but that have ethics, values and standards.

My first question to the Taoiseach is what questions I should put on his behalf to the head of global policy at Facebook with regard to Cambridge Analytica. Is there anything the Taoiseach wants to say to the company following what we have discovered in the past two to three weeks?

My second question is how the Taoiseach is going to fund Irish media if all the money is going to Facebook, Google, Sky and others.

I asked the Taoiseach this question a few weeks ago in the context of promised legislation, but he had no answer to it. He just said there was a Bill coming. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, came into the Dáil on the last sitting day before the Easter recess and made a speech in which he said effectively that the Government was doing nothing in funding Irish media. The Government will not take on board the recommendations of the Oireachtas committee which set out how we could raise a pot of between €60 million and €70 million per year that would go to Irish television, radio, music, content creators, film and drama producers.

My second question is: what does the Government intend to do? All of the pious talk about the need for legislation to protect sources is fine, but, first and foremost, we need to make sure the companies survive. How is the Government going to fund Irish media if it is not going to accept the Oireachtas committee's recommendations in that regard?

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