Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 91:

In page 48, line 21, to delete “€2 million” and substitute “€500,000”.

The concern here is that in respect of the relevant media service provider, the threshold is quite high in that it is only those with annual sales of greater than €2 million that are considered to fall under this remit. I propose that the annual sale threshold be €500,000 in order that more providers are captured. I am conscious that some of the areas of concern we hope will be addressed in terms of media service codes are areas where there is misinformation, poor practices or harmful conduct and the rewarding of that and which may be somewhat smaller. I appreciate and think it appropriate that the audiovisual directive distinguishes between large and smaller. I will come to this later. It is one of the reasons I am concerned about the very wide provisions in terms of cloud services or interpersonal communications. I know the audiovisual directive is specifically designed not to access and regulate everything that happens online but to regulate a certain scale of activity. We may have sufficiently impactful media service providers, including ones that may have poor agendas where the reward may not be in threshold or turnover. The effect and the benefits to those running those services may come in other ways. I am concerned that the €2 million threshold might leave a lot of things in limbo. Is there the potential to lower that? I respect the small to large component within the audiovisual directive but I wonder whether even within that, if €500,000 might not be a more appropriate threshold, particularly given the context of Ireland as a smaller country with an intrinsically smaller market.