Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates who are very welcome. I believed Ms Doherty was being a little defensive when she said it made little sense that RTE could or would perpetuate political bias in its output, as suggested by the invitation. I did not believe that there was any suggestion of perpetuation of political bias but I have to admit that when I hear some of the questions and comments that are being made to the witnesses today, then I must conclude that there is bias.

Ms Doherty was right and I was wrong. I do understand the job RTE is trying to do. Before the meeting today I compared it to somebody cutting up a chocolate cake for three children and trying to leave each child happy that it got a fair share. I know from experience it is a huge job to do that. There would be a temptation to come up with some sort of a mathematical equation to say that the percentages are all there, but in doing so it could stifle real debate and discussion. I believe that would be a huge risk. I believe it is paranoia to even suggest that somebody who is going to participate in a current affairs programme should be asked who they voted for last time out. That is paranoia. It is outrageous.

In the absence of a mathematical equation - I know that as part of its monitoring RTE has said it would look at the broad parameters to ensure some balance of time in terms of fairness - there are other factors. There are regional imbalances. I hate to be parochial but we have a studio in Sligo and I think the term "hardly ever used" would come into play. We have people who would be prepared to talk about current affairs and news items there. There is a studio in Cork and I hope my colleagues here will forgive me, but I believe that every time a report came from the Cork studio last summer, I thought they were going to say, "And now we turn to the Fianna Fáil studio in Cork" because it always seemed to be Fianna Fáil in the Cork studio - not Fine Gael and certainly not Sinn Féin. I believe we need to look at those kinds of regional imbalances.

We need to look at the use of the facilities outside of Dublin. There has to be scope for far greater use. I also believe there is a healthy change coming in current affairs broadcasting and "Claire Byrne Live" is leading that change. It is good that minority views are listened to and debated. We are seeing more of that public-led debate - I describe it as participative democracy - where people who used to sit back, trust politicians to get on with it and not question what they were doing are now watching, listening and studying what the political system and politicians are saying. They are also giving their opinion. I believe that is good and healthy. It could be threatening for government parties, but I believe politicians, organisations such as RTE and others will have to adjust to that new reality.