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

I move amendment No. 51:

In page 49, line 34, after “Part,” to insert the following:

“ ‘party political programme’ means a programme broadcast, or made available in a catalogue of an audiovisual on-demand media service, by or on behalf of a political party for the purpose of promoting the political party;

‘political party’ means a political party registered in the Register of Political Parties;”.

Section 46M(4) of the Broadcasting Act 2009, as inserted by the Bill as passed by the Seanad, retains the prohibition on advertisements of a political nature and the derogation from that prohibition in the case of "party political programmes", previously known as "party political broadcasts". In that, the Bill is intended to reflect long-standing policy.

During the debate in the Seanad, I signalled that "party political programme" was intended to have the same meaning as "party political broadcast", namely, the short programmes carried on our public service broadcaster during electoral periods for the purpose of promoting a registered political party. The term "programme" was used in lieu of the term "broadcast" to ensure that it encompassed both broadcasts by broadcasters and programmes made available by a relevant media service provider, in other words, to ensure that it covered both party political broadcasts on RTÉ 1 and on the RTÉ Player.

Senators and a number of stakeholders, including RTÉ and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, sought clarity in the Bill that "party political programme" had essentially the same meaning as "party political broadcast". Given the importance of providing clarity in this matter I am introducing amendments Nos. 51 to 58, inclusive, to provide for a definition of "party political programme" in the Bill.

Amendment No. 67, when read with consequential amendments Nos. 68 to 76, inclusive, provides that media service codes, which will apply to broadcasting and video-on-demand services, may provide that party political programmes may only be made available at specified times. Currently, party political broadcasts are only made available during electoral periods. This provision is intended to make coimisiún na meán's authority to specify the timing of party political programmes explicit. The intention is that these times shall continue to be during electoral periods. However, to provide flexibility, the provision refers to specified times rather than electoral periods to allow coimisiún na meán adapt to any change in policy in this regard.