STATE funding for a shared central printing facility should not be provided, the commission concludes after reviewing the issue.
Should a publicly funded facility be established in Northern Ireland, then funding such a unit in the Republic should only be done as part of a larger scheme which gives equal state support to newspapers not in a position to avail of the services of the unit.
A shared printing facility would require the most up to date technology and appropriately changed staffing levels, work practices and labour costs. "The investment involved in its establishment is estimated to be very large indeed."
A commission delegation visited a central printing unit in London, West Ferry Printers, where a number of competing titles are printed. These include the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Financial Times, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Express, Daily Sport and Sunday Sport.
The commission is satisfied that such a unit, based in the Dublin region, would make a major contribution to the capacity of indigenous newspapers to be competitive.
The capacity of newspapers to avail of such a facility would depend on their location and level of development in new technology.
If a central unit was established, "regard would have to be had" to the impact it would have on competition within the internal market, as well as the advantage it might give to titles in competition with imported newspapers.
As for local newspapers, the commission considered it improbable that any significant number would benefit from a shared unit.
"In fact, at present there appears to be a growing development in local newspapers whereby those that have invested in new technology and work practices take on, on a contract basis, the printing of other local newspapers.
