Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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107. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the measures he is considering to better regulate the ownership of media in the State; if he can account for the reason, as has been reported recently, that proposals on regulation of media ownership will only apply to new acquisitions-mergers, and will not attempt to regulate or ameliorate existing concentrations of media ownership in the State, in the public interest; the conclusions of the European Commission with regard to retrospective regulation proposals and their compatibility with European Union market law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22941/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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In July last year the Oireachtas passed the Consumer and Competition Authority Act 2014, introducing the new Part 3A of the Competition Act 2002. This Act fundamentally updated the media mergers regime, implementing the recommendations of the Advisory Group on Media Mergers. These changes were designed to deal with contemporary issues like an increasingly fragmented media, the rise of online media and an increasingly dynamic media sector. The central element of the new regime is a new public value test, involving a far more exhaustive definition of media concentration than before and which deals explicitly with cross media ownership as well as the relevant criteria by which media mergers will be examined. Guidelines explaining the legislation governing the new media mergers regulation and providing guidance on the process were published on 10 June 2015. Retrospective actions are not provided for in the relevant legislation; this regime is designed in the 2014 legislation to give the Minister for Communications the responsibility to assess proposed media mergers, and to empower the Minister to block any merger that is deemed likely to be contrary to the public interest. No provision was made in that legislation to allow a Minister open a case against a media business of their own volition. This would be a substantially different matter to dealing with mergers, and would raise a number of difficult questions about preserving the freedom and independence of the press, even before one considers the legal and constitutional complexities associated with retrospective action of this kind.