Mr. Bob Collins:

He who is last shall be first. Deputy Healy-Rae's comments may be entertaining but they paint a caricature of what I said, and an unfair one at that. I pointed to the fact that local radio stations are profitable as a tribute to their performance and not in any sense as a marginalisation or dismissal of them. To characterise the careful report we submitted to the Minister as being a proposal to throw money at RTE is inaccurate, unfair and, in my view, inappropriate at an Oireachtas joint committee where the Deputy and his fellow members have greater freedom of speech than I have. They also have greater latitude in the style and approach of contributions than anybody who appears before a committee. I will leave the matter there.

Deputies Dooley and Phelan spoke very clearly about the values they see in local radio stations and without question I agree with them, as does the BAI as a whole, which in its previous incarnations as the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Independent Radio and Television Commission has had a sustaining relationship with local radio stations. Viewers and listeners everywhere have suffered in recent years as the texture of every schedule has been challenged with the reduction in available funding. At the risk of being perceived as a spokesman for RTE, it and TG4 have had to cut back substantially and their schedules are not as rich as I believe the broadcasters would like them to be. We have stated before that it is a significant achievement by all broadcasters that they have sustained schedules in the manner they have in recent years. They have managed to provide schedules despite significant reductions in expenditure and revenue.

We want to speak about now but look to the future over the next five years, when everybody hopes there will be an economic upturn and some renewal of the advertising revenue available to broadcasters. We want the commercial broadcaster to have a greater share of that than has been the case in the past, and that is what we mean by rebalancing. Deputy Coffey referred to the online platform and that is directly related to these two considerations. One of the major shifts that has taken place and which will affect all media in Ireland, including newspapers, local and national radio, public and private, is the move to online in terms of consumer expenditure, advertising and the manner in which people consume information.

There is a public policy debate to be had in the future about how, whether and in what way online can be regulated. I am not looking for additional work for the BAI, but there is a serious issue to be addressed in terms of the extent to which online activities are wholly unregulated in this State. There is a major public policy issue in terms of the strength of Irish media generally. Local and national newspapers are suffering and we have spoken extensively about the extent to which broadcasters have been affected. That has public policy implications beyond the individual service to a community or the individual experiences of a particular broadcaster.

I said earlier that in other places there is a different regulatory framework where there is a somewhat more prescriptive view of what should constitute the work or output of a public service broadcaster. We must be careful to ensure that we do not mean that it should carry only those programmes that people do not want to see or hear. I am not suggesting that anybody takes that view, but sometimes the debate can veer in that direction. There is a major challenge to develop a regulatory framework that is clear and specific in terms of what is expected of a broadcaster that is in receipt of public money, without infringing the editorial independence of that broadcaster. That is primarily a matter for legislatures until such time as the regulatory framework is given some element of that responsibility.

The issue of 2fm has been raised again. Beyond saying what we said earlier regarding the distinctive character of output that should be the hallmark of a publicly funded broadcaster, that must be a discussion the committee has with RTE. Whatever views we or I might have, it is not a matter on which the BAI can express a view because it is, by statute, reserved to the board of RTE.

There were a number of references to the broadcast service charge. We know nothing about this beyond what we have seen and heard in news outlets. It is a matter of government policy. I have no idea of to what extent there is an expectation of additional revenue from that, nor do I have a view as to whether there are government intentions relating to it, nor do I particularly wish to express a view at present as to what I think the Government's view should be. It does not follow, as night follows day, that any additional funding should automatically go to commercial broadcasters but we have clearly said, and I will repeat it for a final time, that when we talk about an increase in funding for RTE, we clearly say there should be no increase at present and, to this extent we agree with Crowe Horwath, there should be no increase in public funding for its current level of output. We believe its current level of output, in terms of the range and extent of Irish-made programmes, is not adequate for a public broadcaster in the Ireland of now and the future. To secure that and exclusively based on a clear, specific plan as to the nature of the programming that would be broadcast, we think there is a strong argument for saying that the level of programming available to an Irish audience needs greater investment, coupled with tight absolute control of RTE's costs, making the best possible use of its commercial opportunities but limiting those commercial opportunities so more are available to independent broadcasters.

That is as much as I wish to say. If the committee wants any further information, we will be happy to provide it and return to the committee if necessary.