Vol. 529 No. 4
61 Mr. McDowell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when she will publish the promised legislation arising from her consideration of the report of the Competition and Mergers Review Group into its examination of the report of the Commission on the Newspaper Industry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3002/01]
In October 2000 I brought a memorandum to Government seeking Government's approval for the drafting of a general scheme of a competition and mergers Bill. This arose out of the recommendations of the Competition and Mergers Review Group. The Government authorised the drafting of a consolidated Competition and Mergers Bill at their meeting on 24 October 2000. I had asked the Competition and Mergers Review Group to advise me on how best to implement certain recommendations of the Commission on the Newspaper Industry. The recommendations referred to the review group concern the factors to be considered in regulating changes of ownership of newspapers, an amendment to merger law to enable consideration to be given to the acquisition of control over newspapers by means other than the acquisition of shares, and the consideration of the issue of concentration of ownership on a media-wide as well as on a single media basis.
I published the report of the Competition and Mergers Review Group on 4 May 2000. The group, which was chaired by Mr. Michael Collins SC, made some 40 recommendations on a variety of aspects of competition and mergers legislation, the enforcement of competition law and the administration of mergers law. Two of the 40 recommendations relate to newspapers and media and arise from the recommendations of the Commission on the Newspaper Industry, which reported in June 1996. The review group has recommended legislative changes so as to require the Minister, when considering a merger in the media sector, to consider certain criteria identified by the Commission on the Newspaper Industry.
