Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to bring the debate to a conclusion and thank all those who have indicated a willingness to support our efforts. I listened with interest to what the Minister said and it is clear that he shares our view that there is a problem that needs to be resolved. He spoke about disruption and the fact that people are migrating away from listening to the radio or consuming public service news and information in a different manner, perhaps within a digital environment. We are trying to protect the collection and telling of stories. It is about trying to protect journalism rather than the means by which the information is transmitted. If one believes in public service journalism, which I think most people do, it must be paid for. The traditional method of paying for it, however, principally through advertising revenues, is not working and the model is broken. We cannot allow a period of procrastination just to see where the dust settles because if we do, the noble profession of journalism will effectively evaporate. In the world of journalism, there is a recognition that a younger cohort of students does not consider journalism in the traditional way as a career for the future, which is deeply troubling.

I challenge what Deputy Bríd Smith said when she sought to place some negative connotations on the motives of Fianna Fáil and the people who support the proposal. It is not about supporting the owners of radio stations, whoever they might be, regardless of who or what they are. Rather, it is about preserving and protecting high-quality public service journalism and I believe that Newstalk fits neatly into that characterisation. It provides high-quality, independent public service journalism. Seeking to undermine the work of Newstalk or any other radio stations based on whatever certain individuals think of the stations' owners is unfair to the people who work hard for them daily. We must be prepared to stand up against that kind of chat from the shadows which is aimed at undermining the principles of democracy espoused by high-quality public service journalism. Similarly, in the case of our national broadcaster, we all have differences of opinions about the way certain programmes are occasionally run, but we cannot take away from the fact that the people who work on those programmes or who perform their duties in an independent and coherent way do so as a major tenet of the protection of the democratic principles by which the State should stand. As I stated earlier, if we are serious about that, we need to pay for it.

The Minister mentioned the idea of the sound and vision fund being a suitable method of funding. As he will know, however, that fund has a stipulation under which, I believe, it cannot fund live speech content and, therefore, unfortunately, it would not be a suitable way of doing it. He also stated the scrapping of the levy was not a part of a commitment by a previous Taoiseach but my understanding is that it was and that he indicated that it would be fully scrapped. Will the Minister bring forward proposals at the earliest opportunity to give effect to the motion?

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