Éamon Ó Cuív on online safety bill and local radio funding

I have to say that I welcome the introduction of this bill and the introduction of a proper regulatory framework. To deal with the spread of harmful online content, and I do accept this is very complex, because on one hand you have the right to free speech, but that always has to be moderated and it cannot be given without limit. Now one thing that I did not like up to now was that the people who decided what went up or came off actually were the companies themselves, and I thought that that was a totally invidious and totally unacceptable situation. And the ordinary person had no way of, if wrong decisions, of appealing those or dealing with them or appealing to the political system because it was being done by private companies. And therefore, I really welcome the idea of the online safety commissioner, who will oversee the regulatory framework of online safety and who will make the safety codes. I think we have to look at the whole issue of media in our society, and on one hand I absolutely welcome, some of the established media, of course, don't like the idea that you can circumvent their mediation of the news, and you can put the news up yourself. And as long as it is legal, and as long as it is in good taste, and it is in derogatory of people, etc., etc., etc., etc., I think there is a great, it reminds me of 130 years ago, the plethora of pamphlets that were issued by people who could not get into the mainstream media, many of them in this country, many of them by people such as James Connolly, who were pulling forward a message that was maybe not the establishment message at the time and was not likely to have been published in either the Irish Times, published in either the Irish Times, the Freemance Journal, or the Irish Independent of the time, and, yeah, well, agreed, some of us don't get as much publicity as others around here, but that's the way it is. But there is, in my view, a great democratic element to this that I welcome. But on the other hand, I do believe that mainstream media has a significant role to play. But again, I think we need to adjust all of that into the realities of modern Irish society, and there's one element of this that I'd like to talk about, Minister, and that is that I understand in the channel there was an amendment put forward that wasn't accepted, but that you were sympathetic to, that would make sure that public funding was made available to the commercial radio stations that do public content that is in the public interest. And I don't believe that, for example, RT have monopoly of public interest. So I'll give a simple example. If you've got current affairs on RT and you have local current affairs at the same time on a local radio station that is focusing on the issues national and local of that area, why is one heavily subsidised and the other not subsidised at all? I think local radio plays a huge part in our society, provides a very, very positive role and there's three elements to it. Well, four elements. One that they do get paid for because they can go to vision and that is for documentaries, etc. But current affairs? No. News? No. Even the death notices, which are very important in rural areas, certainly, they're not covered. The second one that's not covered is current affairs and the third one that's not covered is local sport. Indeed, to me, these are all public service broadcasting, as much as public service broadcasting as if RT are showing some World Cup soccer game. I have nothing against them doing those things. Therefore, I believe it's time that not because they're commercial but because they're local, because they're providing basic fundamental services and there's nobody else to do it, that funding would be provided for them. I would also say, in the one minute, 51 seconds I have, that I do think it's time too, that it should and allow me to go to the law. It's a hard way to do it. It should and allow me to do it when it's available during the Valentine's Day and the first thing we are, it should be very valuable as many people here. When I know the reality about number five things I have, it's never possible. Sometimes something that a person wanted to say is that a few people want to get rid of the RTI and they wanted to be done in the Bureau. They wanted to say that they don't already know. That they've never said that they don't have anything to say. our wife. But we are in the company setting up a match. We have a chance to think about this recording. We saw this recording. We will now have an opportunity, we are going to play. We will not be able to do our play, but we will be able to play for the role of women. We will soon be able to play it. We will then be able to do our job at a place. We will now have an opportunity to give it to our families. You