Vol. 511 No. 6
73 Mr. Bell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the review group on the newspaper industry has completed receiving comments or submissions from interested parties; if so, when she will receive its final report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25020/99]
The competition and mergers review group, established by my predecessor, has published a number of discussion documents including one on the newspaper sector in March 1999. Comments were invited on the document by 30 April 1999.
I had asked the group, established by my predecessor, to take account of and advise me on how best to implement certain recommendations of the Commission on the Newspaper Industry dealing with competition issues. These CNI recommendations 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.
