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

I thank the Deputy for his amendment. Section 46L(5) of the Broadcasting Act, as inserted by the Bill, seeks to reflect the current policy regarding the requirement for sound broadcasting services to devote a set amount of broadcast time to news and current affairs programmes. This is subject to a derogation that may be issued by coimisiún na meán to a licensed radio service. This derogation is currently exercised by the BAI with radio stations such as Christmas FM.

The amendment brought by Deputies Naughten and Canney would remove section 46L(7), which provides that the various radio services provided by RTÉ are covered as one radio service for the purposes of the news and current affairs requirement. As Deputies are aware, RTÉ radio services are not licensed by the BAI, nor will they be licensed by coimisiún na meán. Instead, RTÉ services are subject to extensive statutory duties set out in Part 7 of the Broadcasting Act 2009. Accordingly, it is not possible for the BAI, and will not be possible for coimisiún na meán, to offer a derogation to RTÉ from the requirement to set aside a minimum amount of time to news and current affairs programming. For that reason, the Bill provides that RTÉ services may be considered as one service for the purposes of the minimum requirements. If the Bill did not have this provision, Lyric FM would be subject to the minimum requirement as much as Radio 1, with no recourse for a derogation, unlike all other radio services. This would have negative implications for both RTÉ and audiences, who currently have considerable choice across RTÉ services, while being well served by news and current affairs programming. That is why I cannot accept this amendment. The practical effect of the amendment would be to require more news bulletins on, for example, Lyric FM. In the longer term that would create a disproportionate requirement on RTÉ which, unlike licensed broadcasters, would be unable to avail of this derogation.