Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 July 2016
38. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to apply the Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2014 retrospectively, to ownership of Irish media outlets as recommended in the report entitled, Media Pluralism in Ireland; given the high the high risk posed by any one person or organisation holding more than a 20% stake in the sector. [21590/16]
View answerThe Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2014 gives the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the responsibility for assessing proposed media mergers, and empowers the Minister to prevent any merger that is deemed likely to be contrary to the public interest in maintaining the plurality of media in the State. This process is additional to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission's role in assessing mergers in the State on competition grounds. There is no retrospective element to this legislation. Attempting to intervene in the operation of a media business when no merger is planned would be difficult, and given that the purpose of the legislation is to safeguard media pluralism, is also likely to be counter-productive.
Protection of media plurality and freedom of expressions are core tenets of a free press. Ensuring that this continues to be the case underpinned the change in the approach to the consideration of media mergers in the 2014 Act. Applying a retrospective element to the legislation would be substantially different to dealing with proposed mergers, both on a practical and legal level, and could, effectively, mean empowering a Government Minister to determine the fate of any media organisation at any given time.
This 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.
In my view, the reforms introduced in the Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2014 have struck the correct balance in this area and are working well.
