Dáil debates

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

5:20 pm

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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43. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on media plurality, given the recent acquisitions of a number of radio stations by international media corporations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38592/16]

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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What are the Minister's views on media plurality, given the recent acquisitions of number of radio stations by international media corporations? Will he make a statement on the matter?

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I assume the Deputy is referring to the recent media merger which involved the purchase of a number of a number of radio stations. Having received my Department's assessment, I determined on 22 September this merger was not contrary to the public interest in maintaining the plurality of media in the State. Details of the media merger regime, including the associated statutory guidelines, are available on my Department's website. This assessment process is based upon the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014, which gives the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the responsibility for assessing proposed media mergers, and empowers the Minister to prevent any merger that is deemed likely to be contrary to the public interest in maintaining the plurality of media in the State.

An important part of the current regime is the requirement on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, to prepare, every three years, a report on the ownership and control arrangements of media businesses in Ireland. In June of this year, I published the first such report, the Report on Ownership and Control of Media Businesses in Ireland 2012-2014. In this report, which is available on my Department's website, the BAI concludes that there has not been a material reduction in media plurality in the State due to the limited changes in ownership and control in the period 2012-2014.

Furthermore, the international expert group, Sustainable Governance Indicators, ranked Ireland nine out of ten in media freedom and eight out of ten in media pluralism, noting that Irish media is independent, with a pluralist ownership structure.

In my view, the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 strikes the correct balance in this area and is working well and, as a result, I am confident that we have a robust and effective set of measures in place to support and encourage a plural and diverse media.

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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The question is focused on the purchase of a number of radio stations by News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's company. It purchased Wireless Group, which owns radio stations FM104, Q102, LMFM, Cork's 96 FM, C103, Live 95FM and U105.8FM Belfast. These stations have a 14% share of listenership. This adds to News Corp's media ownership and a lack of diversity and plurality because the same company also owns The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunand the online company Storyful, apart altogether from BSkyB and Fox. I notice a report by Roderick Fleming from DCU, as part of a recent report by the European University Institute, put Ireland in the high risk category, at 74%, with regard to the concentration of media ownership, and at medium risk of 50% with regard to concentration of cross-media ownership. Will the Minister comment on this?

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Barry. There have been a number of reports on media plurality. The one hitting the headlines at present is that by Lynn Boylan, MEP. I was asked earlier by Deputy Stanley whether I had read it and I have. It raises issues on the media mergers process, but I must stress the report itself did not form part of the assessment process with regard to merger cases which have been or are under consideration. The assessment criteria for media mergers is laid out clearly in legislation and statutory guidelines. I have considered all the media mergers in exact compliance with the legislation and guidelines set out and I have not deviated one iota from these with regard to any of the media mergers I have considered to date or any media mergers I will consider in future. Retrospection was debated in the House when the 2014 legislation went through and it is about getting a balance. Deputy Boyd Barrett was in the House during that debate. It is about trying to strike a balance, which is what we are trying to do.

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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Speaking of striking a balance, let us throw a few more statistics into the discussion. Denis O'Brien's operation owns a 29% stake in Independent News and Media. It has 100% control of Communicorp. This includes titles such as The Independent, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent, the Evening Herald and 13 local titles. It has a 45% share of national newspapers. On top of that, it also has radio stations including Today FM, Newstalk, Spin 1038 and Spin South West. It has 21% of listeners but probably more than 21% of the news agenda because of Newstalk being part of the operation. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which reports to the Minister, carried out a report on ownership in Ireland from 2012 to 2014. It recommended that anything above a 20% share in a media company was too much and allowed the individual to exert influence over content and management appointments. Throughout Europe there are laws which limit how much of the media any one company or person can own. Will the Minister introduce legislation such as this which will apply retrospectively?

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Retrospection is an issue flagged in the report published by Lynn Boylan, MEP. The report in itself recognises it is an extremely difficult area with regard to property rights, market effects, procedural fairness and freedom of expression considerations. This was the caveat put on retrospection. During the passage of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act in 2014 the introduction of retrospection regarding media ownership was debated. The decision was made that on balance it would not be right or proper to consider it. The threshold issue was raised during the Committee Stage debate, but setting a specific threshold can be fraught with risk. The only responsibility I have in this regard is to look at media plurality, and when I receive the report from my officials I will consider it in the context of the statutory obligations I have set as out in legislation and guidelines. I will look at this purely from the point of media plurality.