The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Employment said she hoped to introduce amending legislation on media ownership. Ms Harney said this would occur after the summer, when she had received the report of the expert group on implementing the recommendations of the Commission on Newspapers. "Hopefully, when I get that report, I will be in a position to bring forward amending legislation", she said. "That would be my intention."

The Minister told Mr Pat Rabbitte (DL, Dublin South West) that she was concerned about concentration of media ownership. "Clearly, there is one major dominant player."

Mr Rabbitte said he presumed the legislation would be broader than just newspapers and would include "dominant ownership going into other areas".

Ms Harney said she was talking about the wider issues. "I don't know how retrospective the legislation can be", she said. "People have been given certain assurances, and there are legal entitlements that flow from this, and that is why it is a very complex issue to deal with. We cannot be isolationist in the way we look at competition. It has to be thorough and we have to have it in as many sectors as possible. We've got to ensure that every sector is capable of being competitive."

The Minister said that specialist legislation might be required for the newspaper sector alone or, alternately, more comprehensive legislation dealing with the wider issues involved in competition and mergers.

Mr Rabbitte said that eight months had passed since the Minister asked the review group to give advice on implementation of the recommendations from the Commission on Newspapers. "There are critical issues in terms of diversity and plurality and coverage of public affairs", he said. "Is it not an urgent matter that this would be addressed?"

Ms Harney said she wished she had received the report earlier. She certainly agreed with the deputy. "I am concerned about dominant position, particularly in the media, where there is a need for diversity and plurality.

"One of the hallmarks of a democracy is having a free press and having competition in the media and one has to be concerned about having cross-media ownership as well."

Ms Harney pointed out that the matter was a complex one. There were many issues, including below-cost selling and defamation, as well as issues dealing with ownership and dominance.

Some of these issues were not easy to act upon because of the difficulties they posed, but ownership and diversity was an area where they could move forward.

Mrs Nora Owen (FG, Dublin North) asked if Ms Harney was willing to bring in some minor amendments before bringing in the "big Bill", as she had done with copyright legislation.

Ms Harney agreed that the mergers review group could perhaps make recommendations in certain areas in advance of its overall report and said that she might well act in that way.

Mr Tommy Broughan (Lab, Dublin North East) said that the Minister was operating a "double standard" because, in government, "suddenly you run away from competition". He called on her to accept the Labour Party's proposals on media access and diversity as a first step to bringing about real competition.

Ms Harney said that the matter was not a simple one. "You've got to look at the question of dominance, ownership, crosssubsidisation, below-cost selling. That is not an easy thing to establish when you're dealing with economies of scale and publications that come from another jurisdiction. So there is a wide basket of issues that have to be addressed."

The Minister said that there was a need to ensure competition as far as possible. It was important that competition was "preserved and enhanced as much as possible" by the legislation and that the measures they took would facilitate competition rather than hinder it.

Mr Padraic McCormack (FG, Galway West) asked if the legislation would ensure that the media could not be used to attack TDs over statements they might make. He thought it was a "gross abuse of the position of the media to use their papers to attack members for statements they make".

Ms Harney said she was not talking about any particular individual. She added that it would not be very healthy to have legislation which prevented criticism of anybody. "What we want here is freedom of choice and diversity and editorial freedom in particular."