Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegates and thank them for their attendance. I look forward to seeing the highlights of the meeting tonight on "Oireachtas Report", as I am sure it will be broadcast.

I agree with every member present on the value of independent broadcasters. I can only speak from a County Kerry perspective on the job done in the county by Radio Kerry, a marvellous station that celebrated its 24th birthday last week. Within half an hour in the morning, one can know who is dead, who has been born, whose First Holy Communion or birthday it is, as well as the price of cattle and everything else. It is a fantastic service that is invaluable to communities throughout the county. Moreover, this is not unique to County Kerry because while driving between County Kerry and Dublin twice a week, I get to tune in to all of the other local stations as I pass through the country and the quality and standard are just as high elsewhere and a huge service is being provided.

I have one or two questions. First, is there an estimate of how much advertising is lost by the independent sector because of competition from the subsidised State broadcaster? Does the IBI have figures for an annual value in that regard? I raised the issue of 2fm earlier this year when RTE appeared before the joint committee. As for the public service value of "the Golden Hour", for example, while I do not wish to pick out anything in particular, questions must be asked about the amount being spent on something being provided by independent broadcasters. I do not want this to be perceived as an RTE-bashing episode, as I certainly believe some of the service provided by that organisation is excellent for a small national broadcaster. When one considers what RTE does in a global context, it does an excellent job, but that said, there must be fairness in this regard. I also appreciate the prop being brought in because it makes things very simple and visualises matters. I also agree that as a committee, members should work more towards achieving fairness in this area.

I have one final question which may be somewhat outside the scope of this discussion. Looking to the future and considering how far we have come in 25 years, do the delegates perceive local television to be an opportunity or a threat? As broadcasters, is it something they could consider developing or could they consider moving into that area? Alternatively, is it a completely different field in which they have no interest?