The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise has signaled his opposition to financial intervention to help local newspapers.
Leo Varadkar has been responding to calls from Tipperary TD Michael Lowry for the Government to offer urgent financial aid to the sector.
Iconic Newspapers, which owns the Tipperary Star, the Nationalist and the Midland Tribune, has introduced further temporary layoffs and reduced working hours during the current lockdown.
However, the Tánaiste told deputy Lowry in the Dáil this week that there are limits to how much the State should fund the sector:
“While we are always open to providing extra support for local radio and for newspapers and for journalism, there does come a point where you have to ask yourself how much taxpayers money you’re willing to put behind papers that people don’t read in large numbers anymore and that people don’t advertise in anymore.
“It’s a sad situation but I think a lot of media will move online and will move fully online into the future and that’s the way the world is going.”
