Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As I noted when this issue was raised in the Seanad, I understand the intention of the amendment and why it is troubling for people living on the island of Ireland watching the public service broadcasters to see their part of the island of Ireland removed from maps. I just do not think we should prescribe in legislation what RTÉ and TG4 can or cannot display or show. Under section 98 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, both public service broadcasters are required to be independent in their day-to-day operations, which includes editorial independence as regards programming content.

The purpose of that independence is to prevent political interference in the operation of RTÉ and TG4. Prescribing the format or content of programming in such a detailed manner, no matter how well-intentioned, would run contrary to the principle of editorial independence and, as legislators, I do not think we should make law regarding the types of content that may be shown on our public broadcasters to this degree of granularity. I acknowledge the amendment seeks to address a number of incidents that offended many people, but I cannot accept it because it would set a wider precedent for the regulation in primary legislation of specific types of content.