Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 86:

In page 69, to delete lines 24 to 26 and substitute the following: “33. Section 114 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1)—

(i) in paragraph (a), after “service” where it firstly occurs, to insert “in the Irish and English languages”,

(ii) in paragraph (h), by the substitution of “audiovisual on-demand media services” for “non-broadcast non-linear audio-visual media services”,

and

(b) in subsection (2)(a), by the substitution of “the national aim of restoring the Irish language to use as a spoken language nationwide” for “the Irish language”.”.

This amendment seeks to clarify that RTÉ's object is to establish, maintain and operate a national television and sound broadcasting service in the Irish and English languages. It would expand the current provision that says RTÉ should have "special regard ... in particular" for the Irish language such that it reads "in particular for the national aim of restoring the Irish language to use as a spoken language nationwide". This should be a national aim of media policy generally, and I understand it has already been discussed on Committee Stage in the Seanad. However, given what we have spoken about beforehand and RTÉ's failings in upholding its legal obligations on Irish as exposed by the Coimisinéir Teanga, it is worth our taking the opportunity to strengthen those obligations, and this Bill gives us just that. RTÉ is not an English language-only broadcaster but a bilingual broadcaster and it should be directed in law to support the restoration of Irish as a language used nationwide and to provide a service in both languages and to both language communities.