Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When one follows Deputies Timmy Dooley and Eamon Ryan and Senator Joe Reilly, there is very little left to say.

I will be very brief because many of the topics have been raised and I came here to mention two, one of which is regionalisation.

I accept that RTÉ has a remit as a national broadcaster, but I wish to talk about investment in regional offices such as those in Athlone, Galway and my home town of Cork in physical infrastructure such as studios. There are several broadcasts on television and radio every day from Cork. Given the long-term plan, the unfortunate financial position and the uncertainty the director general has so eloquently explained to us, will the regional offices become the hind tit in terms of developments? Is there a plan for the major campuses in some locations and how we can promote them in order that they will remain important regional centres? No other broadcaster can do what RTÉ can do and no other broadcaster has the same base as it in the regional cities. There is, therefore, some concern, given the implications of the financial position of RTÉ, about how it will develop and change the regional networks. Will the director general give us some insight into how the regional broadcasting centres can be developed?

In his 13 questions Senator Joe O'Reilly covered the majority of the issues. The second issue I wish to raise concerns the broadcasting of children's programmes and where we are going in that space. In homes there are smart TVs, on which YouTube and a variety of programmes are available. Children flick through the options and move on. With respect to RTÉ, RTÉ Player never comes into it. The older generation use it. My seven and eight year old children never engage with it while they have the ability to look at everything else in between. The national broadcaster is losing space in that regard and it will be a major challenge for it to come back into it. Unfortunately, the days of "The Den" and other such programmes are gone. There is a new generation and I fear that unless something is done, we will lose that space totally and that content will be brought in from every other part of the world, bar Ireland. We need to really focus on the strategy to be followed in that regard because the world has changed in three years because of smart TVs and everything else that goes with them. Will the director general outline what she is proposing and how she can fill the space that, unfortunately, has been lost?