Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our colleagues from the Department for being with us today. I do not know if I have questions or comments for the Minister. Perhaps it is a combination of both. Obviously, it is exceptionally important that our national broadcaster continues to function as it should in creating a reliable output of public service media. One issue that arose during all the questioning in this committee on the debacle that we are all very much aware of caused me serious concern. I do not know if it was a genuine attempt to do so or if it just happened to be the case. The previous board, bearing in mind the significant overlap between the previous board and the current board, seemed to be able to wash its hands of any of the crises that arose at the time. The former chair outlined on a number of occasions that she and others were not even remotely aware of what was happening within RTÉ. When the two reports are made available to the Minister in February, I ask her, in her ongoing discussions with the new board of RTÉ, to ensure that all of us who have the best interests of RTÉ as an organisation at heart can be confident that there will be very robust - the Minister uses the phrase herself - internal governance procedures put in place under the new regime so that the board is acutely aware of decisions that are made. I am not suggesting the board needs to micromanage the affairs of RTÉ on a daily basis but I am suggesting that it should have in place robust reporting mechanisms for when key decisions are being made, mostly of a financial nature, about the future of RTÉ, and that it should be aware of those decisions, scrutinise them and ultimately report to the Minister on its confidence in the people making the decisions. That is a key element of what needs to be put in place after the Minister receives those two reports.

During the committee's discussions, the creation of a register of external interests was mentioned a number of times. We heard some noises about that a number of weeks ago but Mr. Bakhurst has gone strangely silent on it again. I ask that the register be put in place in the shortest possible timeframe. It is an incredibly important element of rebuilding trust in RTÉ as an organisation. The optics of having that register in place, so that people who engage in work outside of RTÉ are not seen to be influenced by that work or those offering it, will be an incredibly important part of restoring trust in RTÉ as an organisation.

On the issue of the RTÉ and public service broadcasting and media in general - many of us in this room have made the same point previously - I ask that in the ongoing engagement between the Department, the Minister and the Commission, there is an acknowledgement of the value of public service media at local level as well. I know the Minister has referred to this on numerous occasions. An easily accessed funding mechanism is needed for those at local level who create something of genuine value in the area of public service broadcasting and the print media. Their role in building trust in media in general in Ireland needs to be acknowledged and supported in the future. Those are my first few observations.

I support Deputy O'Sullivan in his concerns about the likely implications of a regime around Airbnb and how that might function in rural areas. I have been contacted by numerous people who operate Airbnb accommodation and the various models of self-catering on the platforms that are available. They are deeply concerned that in our efforts, laudable as they are, to seek to make more accommodation available for people who are without accommodation, we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater and undermine a sector of our tourism offering that is very valuable to rural communities, villages and towns. I understand that guidelines are to be issued to local authorities on how they deal with the planning aspects for operators who want to continue offering self-catering accommodation in rural towns and villages. I ask that we have scrutiny of those before they are factored into legislation in future.

Last week, the committee met representatives of the Musicians and Entertainment Association of Ireland who expressed concerns about the future of the Irish music industry in general. The Minister has done extraordinary and ground-breaking work in establishing the basic income for artists. We see already that this of immense value in giving people the opportunity to continue creating art in all its shapes and forms while having a safety net of not being wholly reliant on their art. It offers artists the freedom to be able to do something we hope will be pretty special in the future.

In last week's discussion, we also had an acknowledgement that in light of what is happening on streaming platforms around the world - it is not unique to Ireland - our music industry is in a very precarious position at this point. We had a discussion around the creation of a national music strategy, following on from South Korea and other countries that have developed such a strategy. They have done so primarily because they acknowledge the need to create a well planned, orchestrated and robust ecosystem where young musicians find that they have an opportunity to express themselves and promote and showcase their music. They have the wherewithal to do that in a world where their music itself is often undervalued, particularly in the context of the streaming platforms. I suggest that we examine whether the Departments that play any role in supporting and promoting Irish music in general, the Arts Council and local arts officers can pull together all the disparate strands of those support mechanisms to create an overarching national music strategy. We should do that in the new year. I would be interested in hearing the Minister's views on that.