Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are in public session. We are sitting as the joint sub-committee on petitions. We will record the decisions of the committee. The committee has received a total of 134 petitions to date since the launch of the petitions system. The secretariat has been examining them to establish admissibility of the petitions and to decide how best to progress a petition for consideration by the joint sub-committee. Some 115 of the petitions received have been brought before the committee on at least one occasion.

Today we are considering five petitions, the first petition is No. P00024/13, in respect of the recruitment policy in RTE. The petitioner, Mr. Kevin Sharkey, is of the opinion that there is a policy in RTE, where the station employs only white people. He states that in the past 20 years he is the only non-white person to successfully gain employment as a television presenter with the station. He would like to see a more diverse staff in RTE with the station hiring people for what they can do and not on the colour of their skin. This petition came before the committee in February and March 2014 and the committee agreed to write to RTE for clarification and in turn to forward its reply to the petitioner for response. The petition would have come before the committee again last year but we were awaiting the petitioner's response, which we received on 27 February 2015.

I will open the discussion to members for their comments.