Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I shall not go over any of the ground that previous speakers have covered but wish to make two points.

In terms of political bias, I do not torture myself about the subject because it is to be found in every institution on this island. Political bias is nowhere stronger than within this House. It also exists in media which includes broadcast media, newspapers, etc. It is a bit naive of any of us to suggest that, for some reason, we can operate a public or private broadcaster and that everyone who works in it is apolitical or non-political. That is the most naive conclusion for anyone to make because everyone has views whether they are strong, weak, right or left. The vast majority of people hold views on things. I do not think we should lose site of that and take off one section of society by claiming they exercise too much political bias.

It is worthwhile for me to mention the following, given that no one else has done so already. I wish to refer to this country's most recent history. However, I will not talk about and will leave aside the economic collapse of the banking system and part of the economy. Let us touch on other things that have come out in the public domain. They have not come out into the public domain because of what politicians, including myself, have done. The fact that they have reached the public domain is largely the responsibility of what RTE has done and I have only to cite a few examples. Sexual abuse, be it in the church or outside of it, was not brought up in this House; it was done by RTE.

We can criticise broadcasters and I will outline my one criticism in a minute but we should credit broadcasters when they do things right. Unfortunately, there is a lot of hidden history in this country but society has opened up a good deal. Even in more recent times, for example sexual abuse by paramilitaries or members of political parties, the very same thing happened. No one had the bottle to stand up in the Chamber to raise the issues. It was left to the broadcasters to initiate discussion and we should be conscious of that fact.

I do not know to whom I should direct my next query on news coverage on television or radio. I avoid as much television as possible because a lot of media programmes are tabloid stuff. RTE would do us all a great favour if its radio programme called the "South Wind Blows" was broadcast seven nights a week or even all weekend because it would raise the spirit of the nation.

I ask the delegation not to be sensitive about my next comment. I genuinely feel that for a long time an insensitive approach has been taken to the unemployed in news coverage. The delegation can contradict me if they like but I believe there is a complete disconnect between RTE, as broadcasters of the news, and those who have lost the most following the collapse of the economy. Many thousands of men and women have no job to go to when they get up in the morning. RTE still has a responsibility towards them and, in recent times, I was one of those people. Even before one goes to stand in a queue, when one turns on the radio in the morning, irrespective of what the programme might be, the first thing one will hear is a headline like "Coolock has lost 200 jobs". Eight days previously RTE's broadcast would have included mention of 340 jobs being created but that positive news would have only ranked fifth in the news bulletin. Every time jobs are lost RTE, more than other broadcasters, broadcasts the bad news first. I am being straight with the witnesses and they can check for themselves by monitoring broadcasts. I shall conclude by saying that such a policy is insensitive to the unemployed.

As any Deputy will attest, many thousands of people write letters and send e-mails seeking work. The vast majority of people want to work and they will go to great length to get any sort of innings, even as far as taking a part-time job. The national broadcaster should be responsible and give people some hope and I do not mean in a political sense. I do not play the recovery up because it is very modest but it is going in the right direction. I ask the delegation to look at this matter. Please bear in mind that all of these people have families, etc. An announcement of job losses is usually the first item on the news and there have been quite a few such announcements. I have tried to monitor them since 1 January but I know there have been quite a few of them. When one is having a bowl of cornflakes or porridge in the morning the first thing one hears is that the firm down the road has lost another 300 jobs. I know such news has a huge negative effect because people have said it to me. As I represent a constituency that has the largest level of unemployment, men and women have said to me: "I cannot listen anymore, especially to RTE, because the first bit of news in the morning is negative." An announcement of jobs being created is positive and gives people hope. That is all I am saying to the delegation.