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

The Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment will host an international conference here on disinformation and fake news on 6 and 7 November, which we look forward to. This issue is troubling countries across the world as democracies are under real threat. Clearly, one of the responses to this is a strong media that can tell the difference between what is fake and what is real and tell our people with real clarity, honesty and independence what is happening in the world. In that context, this Government's throttling of RTÉ, with the ongoing decline in its funding model, and the Government's refusal to accept the recommendations our committee set for the proper funding of RTÉ and other Irish media are deeply worrying. We now possibly face the closure of RTÉ's studio in Cork, the closure of Lyric FM or the sale of more RTÉ land as it continues to sell capital assets just to cover current expenditure. When will the Government change its position of trying to kill this sector of the media-----

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