Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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73. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when the Future of Media Commission is due to produce a report and recommendations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21795/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Future of Media Commission held its inaugural meeting on 29 October 2020.  Since then, the commission has engaged comprehensively with stakeholders, including broadcasters, journalists, publishers, regional media and the wider public. The first phase of the Future of Media Commission public consultation, which ran from December 12th 2020 to January 8th 2021, resulted in over 800 written submissions from stakeholder groups and the general public on a wide range of themes.

At the end of January 2021, the Commission began a series of thematic dialogues through online webinars in which panels of experts explored key themes in more depth and answered follow-up questions from the virtual audience and the Commission members.  The webinars and the public consultations mentioned earlier are all available on the Future of Media Commission’s website.  The Commission is expected to report to An Taoiseach and myself over the coming months and I look forward to receiving their report and recommendations.