Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That should not be a revelation to anyone. I have not approached the Stock Exchange or the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, ODCE, about it. The ODCE acts independently. If there is a concern, I am sure if the director deems it appropriate to investigate, he will do so.

Turning to media diversity, in any business competition is a good thing, whether that is a service, goods or anything else. It gives consumers more choice and reduces prices. Competition is especially important in the media. It is not a normal business. It is part of our democracy and we need to have a diversity of voices in our media. I do not think it is the role of politicians to decide what is the appropriate percentage that a media company should hold. We have the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC. The appropriate role is for it to assess any proposals for mergers and to see whether that would give any player in the market a position that is too large. I would not like to see Ministers adjudicating as to whether 27% is okay but 28% is not or to be in that space. These things should be independent of politics and politicians. They should be determined by a body such as the CCPC when it comes to a merger such as this, with the BAI having a role too. I think that system is the right one and the policy is correct as we have it.

I read the Reporters Without Borders media freedom index report recently. It is interesting reading. Deputy Brendan Howlin referred to it as well. It gives us a relatively high rating in respect of media freedom. We are in the first tier but down slightly on previous years. I think we are around 13th or 14th in the world out of nearly 200 countries. However, a few things were pointed out. It pointed to what it believes is RTÉ being too large in the broadcasting space, INM being too large in the print space and our defamation laws being too much on the side of the person who was defamed. I imagine those defamed would have one view and defamers would have a different view. The issue of the protection of sources was also raised. We discussed that yesterday. I am not sure if Deputies have proposals as to how we could reduce RTÉ's position in broadcast media or INM's position in print. However, given that Reporters Without Borders put those two together, as two of the four issues it believes need to dealt with, when we talk about this we need to talk about both issues as well. That is the analysis it put forward.

I am not sure if there has been some false reporting, but for clarity I did not have a private meeting with Mr. Denis O'Brien in Davos. No meeting was scheduled. We did not sit down together across a table or sit down together at all. He was in Davos. I was in Davos. I ran into him in a corridor. It was very public. We exchanged pleasantries and that was it.

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