Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the media spokesperson for the party on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, along with Senator Malcolm Byrne, we have engaged with a lot of media in Ireland over the past four years. I totally disagree with Senator Mullen's comments. Our main public service broadcasting companies, our local radio stations and our national radio stations are trusted in my view. Social media is where the distrust is. We would all acknowledge that. I am fully supportive of whatever mechanism of funding is put in place to make sure that we do continue to fund proper and honest public service broadcasting in this country into the future, which we have had in the past with our main broadcasters be it RTÉ or others such as Newstalk, Virgin and local stations.

I second the proposal by Senator Eileen Flynn that the Committee on Disability Matters might address the House with regard to pre-budget discussions. We held a joint meeting last week with the all-party parliamentary group on autism, the Committee on Disability Matters, and the Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton.

I also wish to speak about coach parking. I have family that have a coach business and I have also spoken with Willie Martin. I am aware that Senator McGahon is also familiar with the coach industry. In recent times there has been no 24-hour coach park in Dublin. Coaches are parked out on the streets. Only in the last 24 hours two coach companies, Furey's and Logan's, have had more than €7,000 or €8,000 worth of damage done to their buses when they were parked along the street. The windows had been put in.

We welcome the cycle lanes that were put in the streets but now we do not actually have places where buses can pull in if they are bringing tours around our capital city. I ask that we would engage with Dublin City Council so that a proper 24-hour bus parking area is put in place to make sure that not just the buses, but also the belongings of the people on the bus, can be kept safe. Perhaps this request could be forwarded to the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, and to Dublin City Council.