Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We had budget speeches in the Seanad yesterday evening to dissect and welcome the packages worth €90 billion throughout all Departments. A very small aspect of the budget mentioned yesterday, on which I had certainly campaigned for a number of years in association with Local Ireland and NewsBrands, was the elimination of VAT on newspapers. It has gone from 9% to zero and this will give the industry a fighting chance to survive. What will help the industry to survive is people buying newspapers. Yesterday when the Minister for Finance was making his announcement in respect of the reduction from 9% to zero, at the very same time he was trying to give the newspaper industry a chance, we saw Mediahuis release an announcement that it was closing one of its newspapers, the Fingal Independent, a newspaper I worked at for a decade. My heart went out to all of the journalists and employees of the publication, which has been in existence for more than 40 years. To make this announcement during the budget speech, when the Minister was giving the industry a chance, was a pure disgrace. It is a warning sign to many other local newspapers throughout the country of the perilous state in which they find themselves. Perhaps the industry that campaigned so hard for a break will give its own employees a break and think twice about shutting the door not only of a newspaper but what is a local record for many communities the length and breadth of this country.

I welcome the announcement at the weekend by the GAA that former President Mary McAleese has agreed to chair the integration process between the GAA, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association. It is a significant move to bring all of the associations together. There is no better person to make sure it goes as seamlessly as possible than the former President Mary McAleese. I wish her well in her work.