Media Regulation Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-11 ============================================================ Rónán Mullen (IND), National University of Ireland Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome this Bill and the essence of it, which, as the Minister of State has set out, focuses principally on media mergers and acquisitions, as well as on the important issue of advertising by public bodies. I have a few points to make. In relation to media mergers and acquisitions, we had representatives of the Department, Coimisiún na Meán and, indeed, the independent radio sector before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport yesterday. As the Minister will know, there is considerable concern at the effect that the broadcast levy is having, particularly on smaller independent media organisations. Basing that levy on turnover seems to me to be very problematic in circumstances where organisations might have a large turnover but a very tight profit margin. There is ambivalence about whether it is entirely desirable that Coimisiún na Meán is becoming the regulatory behemoth that it is, with a very large inflow of staff and so on. It looks like we are entering into a highly regulated environment. While that is welcome in some ways and regulation is necessary, I sometimes wonder whether regulators can also become tyrants. One of the issues I have warned about and raised with Coimisiún na Meán is the potential conflict between its role as a dispenser of funding to media on one hand and any perception that it might be seeking to curate the mood around certain issues on the other. For example, Coimisiún na Meán has a role in promoting diversity and various good things but that, in a sense, is a political goal. My concern is that we are not looking sufficiently at what diversity actually means. It is clear to me that when we talk about the important issue of media freedom we think of jurisdictions like Hungary, for example, where a lot of very understandable criticism was made around excessive state control of media. There is also the danger of excessive monopolisation in media ownership and another concern that was raised yesterday is the fact that a number of our local radio stations are being bought up by, in some cases, international organisations. Whether there is anything in this legislation or elsewhere that addresses this, I think most people regret it when they hear that a long-established local newspaper or radio station has been bought up by a much larger body and sometimes an international body. People wonder how well they can continue to reflect local concerns and issues when that is happening. In respect of the role of Coimisiún na Meán in scrutinising or being in charge of advertising by public bodies, it is important there is transparency and it is important there would not be discrimination. A point I have repeatedly put is that there is a danger of groupthink in the Irish media, though not necessarily because of State control or monopolisation. I have focused in particular in the past about a failure in RTÉ, for example, to cover a range of different points of view across a range of controversial social issues. Take migration, for example. Take debates about controversies about trans issues and so on. There is a perception that the establishment media looks over its shoulder at what the Government expects it to say to curate the national debate, so to speak. Media freedom must be about more. It must certainly be about media freedom from excessive state influence. However, there is also a need for scrutiny of the media itself to make sure it has enough diversity within its own ranks so as to ensure the reflection of the full range of opinions on issues in society. Freedom of expression is vital to the functioning of a democracy. If one takes the very difficult area of migration, where important questions need to be asked about what is happening in our society and how we are going to manage it, there is a sense out there that the establishment media cannot be fully trusted to let the full range of points of view be heard. In the long term, that is not good for our democracy. We have to deal with the paradoxical situation that social media and new digital media in some ways are the Wild West. On the one hand, there are very negative forces availing of the platform it gives them to amplify points of view that are not necessarily based in fact. However, on the other hand, the new digital space has brought a welcome democratisation whereby points of view that simply have not been permitted to be expressed in the mainstream are actually allowed to be heard. That is actually a very good thing. To sum up my comments, I have absolutely no objection to any of the provisions in the legislation before us today. We have to bring forward this legislation. As was said, it is directly applicable, coming from our European Union obligations. However, it remains to be seen the extent to which the structures we have established for media regulation in Ireland actually do ensure the necessary facilitation of diverse opinions across our society being treated with equal respect and being fully facilitated in the media that are being regulated. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-11