Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Higgins's points are well made and go to a wider point of debate in terms of the value of news, from where we ascertain it and the value put on it by the owners of the broadcasting stations. I refer to the points made by Senator Higgins regarding putting a time limit on the derogation to ensure that, as she stated, the business models are not on the basis of a continuing derogation in order to seek to fulfil what market research has indicated the station audience is. Unfortunately, many of these commercial stations are now fighting to stay alive. We saw that during the pandemic. I pay tribute to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, because the sound and vision fund kept them alive. In fairness to John Purcell, he appeared at the committee and stated that. He stated that in the region of 30 stations were on the verge of collapse and would have collapsed were it not for the intervention of the Government and the sound and vision fund. He stated that kept the stations alive. On further probing in the course of those discussions, it emerged that the marketplace for these stations is becoming extremely tough. There was a migration of advertisers to different platforms because of the pandemic and that has not fully recovered since. The business models have changed. When stations are reassessing their business models, they look towards what their marketplace is in an ever-competing world and the whole necessity for news, current affairs and sport broadcasting drops down the list. The stations made that point to the committee in terms of advertising time and the requirement for news and current affairs and so forth. This has also had an impact in terms of the diminution of radio station newsrooms. That is very sad thing for young journalists coming forward in terms of the opportunities that present themselves. The value placed on news and current affairs in the context of newsrooms has diminished, but that is not the doing of news editors. God, they are fighting a losing battle. They have become despondent as well. The point made by Senator Higgins in respect of not facilitating an ever-running derogation is well made. It is certainly worthy of debate, and I support that.