Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Editorial Review of The Frontline Presidential Debate: Discussion with RTE

10:20 am

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to what Deputy Moynihan asked at the start of the meeting. I have a simple question. My mind was not changed on the night in question and it was obvious for whom I was going to vote for. The committee must ask two questions. How many people changed their minds that night due to the programme? Did it have an impact on the election result? I believe the result of the election was changed in consequence. From a public service broadcast point of view it calls into question, as Deputy Moynihan has done, the management of elections, the relationship between the media and electioneering and how an election will be operated in the future.
Let us contrast the manner in which debates have been conducted for referenda commissions and how they convey information. The contrast could not be starker. If one contrasts the Irish presidential election broadcast ambit with its American counterpart the contrast could not be more obvious.

In the American situation one does not have the type of audience hijacking, as I would call it, as when somebody is standing for election in Ireland, be it in a general election, by-election or European election, where there would be a national interest. It certainly calls on us as legislators and the public service broadcaster, which is in receipt of the licence fee, to examine how to get fairness into the system and to restore trust. Those are the fundamental issues. What is in place now to ensure this does not happen again? If somebody is interviewed on "Prime Time" or some other programme on television or radio and there is a spurious tweet or text message from Mary from Dungloe, she could be one's constituency colleague and could do irreparable damage. It is a very pertinent question. What safeguards are in place to ensure that does not happen?

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