Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I move amendment No. 57:

In page 34, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following:

"(3) The quorum for a meeting of the Press Council shall be 7 directors, a majority of whom shall represent the public interest.".

This amendment seeks to provide something which I would regard as being something of an oversight from Schedule 2, namely, minimum requirements in respect of a Press Council. As things stand, there is no provision for a quorum. The Government went to great trouble to set out some excellent minimum requirements for a Press Council and specifically require that the number of directors of the council be 13 and that a majority should be representative of the public interest rather than the interests of the owners, publishers or journalists. I have proposed, therefore, that the law would require also that there would be a quorum for meetings of the Press Council and that this quorum would be seven. The key issue is that the majority of those present would represent the public interest for any meeting of the Press Council to be quorate.

I hope the Minister would look favourably on this proposal. It is reasonable and in keeping with the spirit of what is proposed, which is to provide an alternative means for people to have redress when they believe they have been treated unfairly by the media. For the Press Council to have credibility, it should be established that there would be a majority of members representing the public interest required for it to be quorate.