Mr. Steve Carson:

I will read this at a lick. It is a fairly long statement with a long submission too. I thank the Cathaoirleach, Deputies and Senators for the invitation to attend. RTÉ welcomes the opportunity to participate in this discussion. The general scheme represents a further significant amendment of the Broadcasting Act following the enactment of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022. As a public service media provider, which continues to serve its audience in an increasingly changing and demanding media landscape, we hope many of these amendments will enable RTÉ to continue to do so. There are other elements of the Broadcasting Act which we would suggest are also in need of review, most notably the continuing historical link between ownership of a television set and payment of a licence fee. Given that audiences now access RTÉ content on a myriad of platforms, so too is the urgent need to provide greater legal and regulatory protection to ensure prominence.

In terms of the provisions of the general scheme we have offered a detailed submission which we hope will be of value to the committee in its considerations of this draft legislation and its implications post enactment. RTÉ endorses the overall objective of these legislative amends, which are intended to evolve the current regulatory framework to support the provision of public service content by the wider sector and to ensure that there are robust standards of transparency, reporting and performance review for the public funds involved. We welcome, in particular, the development of the role of the independent regulator, Coimisiún na Meán. Informed and rigorous regulation not only enhances focus on performance standards; it also offers due assurance to the public in terms of value for money and helps to develop sectoral standards. Therefore, while we have offered some suggested small amendments to the various provisions of this draft legislative amendment, we do so in the spirit of trying to make the objectives that it serves more achievable and aligned.

The committee will note that in our submission, we have provided detailed commentary against the various heads of Bill. We highlight the following issues as being most material for RTÉ in terms of their implementation. The first is commissioned spend transition timings. Within the overall context of timings, RTÉ has stated publicly, and reiterates the point in this submission, that we are committed to increasing our spend on commissioned content from the independent production sector to at least 25% of public funding. However, the timing of this is dependent and contingent upon the completion of our transformation programme. The implementation of an ambitious voluntary exit scheme is central to achieving that. Given the variability of permissions around future schemes, and staff application for same, as outlined at section 116A, a commitment of this nature could result in a dual liability of continued fixed costs and commissioned spend. We therefore suggest that the timelines ultimately reflected in the legislation allow sufficient latitude for the transition period ahead. This element of the general scheme aligns with recommendation 5.1 of the Future of Media Commission report. The timelines envisaged in that same analysis suggest a five-year period of transition. Given the complexity of the transition involved, we propose that is a more realistic timeframe to achieve this objective, to prevent a dual liability being an unintended consequence.

I turn to commissioned works and independent production unit, IPU, reporting. With regard to IPU reporting, RTÉ notes the expanded nature of the information which the scheme proposes. RTÉ is committed to transparency in terms of its own reporting. However, the scale of additional information which is sought in relation to commissioned projects creates onerous reporting commitments on the independent sector, and therefore presents feasibility considerations for RTÉ. In addition, we have made comments on the obligation of a 25% minimum investment. Given the larger scale budgets of drama and scripted comedy for example, this threshold potentially curtails RTÉ’s ability to invest with more companies. As stated in the new direction strategy, RTÉ has an ambition to increase its investment across drama in particular, but this minimum proportion of overall budget is potentially restrictive of RTÉ’s ability to commission across more companies. We refer to that on page 27 of the submission.

On the matter of future funding decisions, the timelines for the three-year strategy creation and submission process and related regulatory review are all explicit and are mapped out with the intention of creating funding certainty and corollary performance objectives. The general scheme at present does not set out any such timing for the Government response, which puts the viability of the contingent deliverables at risk. Separate from the issue of the timing of the Government response, we note that the ultimate decision on the funding of public service media nationally will continue to be made at a political level. RTÉ has previously advocated that the recommendations of the independent regulator should be binding, as is the case with other utilities. The European Broadcasting Union has articulated that public service media funding decisions should be informed by the principles of being stable and adequate, fair and justifiable, transparent and accountable and independent of political interference. While we acknowledge that many aspects of the general scheme amendments align with these principles, there is a high reliance on the political authorisation of funding for public service media within Ireland. Article 5(3) of the European Media Freedom Act obliges member states to provide adequate, sustainable, and predictable funding for public service media, ensure that such funding is allocated in a transparent and objective manner and guarantee editorial independence and prevent political or commercial interference.

While noting the transparency and robustness of the oversight and regulatory process as outlined in the general scheme, we observe that there is less explicit detail as to the decision making process at a political level.

Given the experience of other public service media organisations internationally, this creates a vulnerability within the overall framework that is a potential concern.

We strongly welcome the current three-year funding settlement that allows the organisation to plan ahead, implement organisational transformation, give more certainty to our partners in the independent sector and serves to enhance RTÉ's editorial independence.

RTÉ has made a number of other constructive comments and suggestions on the draft legislation. It is important that the legislative and regulatory architecture and principles which underpin public service media provision evolve to align with modern realities. This review is welcome and timely. We look forward to engaging with members on the deliberations that lie ahead.