I want to first welcome Gavin Brennan Morrow to the House. He is an intern with me and is a student in St. Muredach's College, my former secondary school. He is also a great active musician and a member of the community in Ballina. I welcome him to Seanad Éireann this morning and thank him for his assistance throughout the day.

I also want to wish the best of luck to St. Joseph's Secondary School, Foxford. It is in the FAI schools national U15 B cup final against Coláiste na Sceilge, Cahersiveen, in Limerick this afternoon. I wish the team well.

Last week, I raised the levy on independent local radio stations that has been initiated by Coimisiún na Meán. It is totally outrageous, and something needs to be done about it. I totally respect that we must have independence in the media but Coimisiún na Meán cannot be a law unto itself. It was formed out of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which had 40 staff in 2020. Coimisiún na Meán now has a staff of over 220 and it is the local radio stations that are having to pay to be regulated further by it. It is totally outrageous.

The Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Deputy O'Donovan, says that he cannot intervene, and we must respect the delineation of powers and the commission's independence. However, it cannot go off and be a law unto itself. Was this levy adequately and properly discussed by the Oireachtas media committee? There needs to be some sort of formal process in place. Coimisiún na Meán cannot continue to grow its staff by the hundredfold and then start levying independent broadcasters.

The reason they have increased their staff levels is to regulate further online media through social media platforms platforms, so why are independent broadcasters, which are the life and soul of local communities, which are there in times of emergencies such as storms, which are the beating heart of local sports and cultural events and which are under a lot of pressure because of challenges facing the sector ironically because of social media, being levied with 39% increases? This will be detrimental to some of these local media organisations.

I ask for support from right across the House on this because it is totally unfair that this has been levied upon broadcasters. We need a debate on this and I call for the Minister to come to the House to discuss it further because it is totally unfair. What will happen if the commission wants to increase the levy by 100% or 200%? Will we just wash our hands and say it has nothing to do with us because the commission is totally independent? Where will it stop if the commission wants to increase its staff? It began with 40%. What if it wants to increase it to 1,000%? Where does it stop? Where is the intervention from across the House? I would like to think that there is support from all sides on this. It is sensitive because it is important that there be separation but there needs to be intervention on it and I ask for the Leader's support on it