Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 July 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport
Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport
2:00 am
Rónán Mullen (Independent)
I thank the Minister, the Minister of State and the officials for being here. I will focus, if I may, on the brief of the Minister. I have several questions I want to ask today. The committee is conducting pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the broadcasting (amendment) Bill. This Bill sets out, as the Minister has put it, to improve transparency, accountability and value for money in RTÉ and TG4, and to put in place a new statutory framework to support the provision of public service content. In recent weeks, in my discussions when the director general of RTÉ was before the committee, I asked whether it is now opportune, in light of our pre-legislative scrutiny, to conduct a proper public service audit to enable us to determine what we want from public service broadcasters and how we measure output. I have raised concerns about a lack of diversity in RTÉ, particularly in the way various cultural, political and social issues are covered. I believe it is certainly the case that socially progressive points of view tend to dominate, almost to the exclusion of more socially conservative views. I may be right or wrong on this but I know there is considerable public disquiet about a lack of balance generally on some issues in RTÉ. There is a belief that NGOs, or some NGOs, have perhaps too much influence over the content of public service broadcasting. I note the media and broadcasting division of the Department talks about a robust, effective and appropriately resourced framework for online safety but how about one for measuring public service broadcast content?
I was intrigued when I suggested to the director general that there should be some kind of audit for diversity, that he said it might be redolent of North Korea. The last time I checked in North Korea, they check to make sure there is not diversity. They check for uniformity. What I am asking for is some kind of audit that would check to see whether there is sufficient genuine diversity of outlook so that what is presented to the public is appropriately representative of Ireland in all its diversity. Is there space, and is it time, for a public service audit of the kind I am raising? Can this be achieved by the Department in the context of the Bill or otherwise?
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