Mr. Noel Curran:

Deputy Moynihan asked a few other questions. I will ask Mr. Kennedy to go into detail about defamation because we have discussed this. There are issues for me around honest opinion. Some of the language is incredibly complex and incredibly difficult. The concept of it, as introduced in the last amendment, was a positive move. I know the UK has moved towards that in recent legislation but we have not seen precedent on that . That which should be the cornerstone of our defence has some provisions and complications. I also think that some of what the UK has done in terms of setting a level of causing serious harm and stating that a defendant must prove that the libel has caused serious harm is something for us to look at. Many defamation cases never reach court and are never settled because we defend them to the hilt. Perhaps there should be a threshold from the start for some of those cases which use up an awful lot of time and resources.

There are other issues. One can look at what has happened in America. I do not believe that we will ever have the first amendment protection or that we will have the malice protection the US has, but there are issues around that and around opinion. For a jury, and these are juries of our peers who are deciding these issues, cornerstones of defence should be as uncomplicated as possible, although that is not always possible. I will ask Mr. Kennedy to comment on the issue presently.

On the Deputy's two other questions, the first one of which was whether we are as efficient as we can be, it is hard for any organisation to say, across the board, that it is as efficient as it can be in every single thing it does. RTE is substantially more efficient than it has ever been. In terms of all the outside reviews that have come in, and the NewERA review, which will be critical in this regard because that is its brief, we are very confident that we are a very efficient organisation.

In terms of the community radio issue, I have a huge amount of sympathy and support for community radio in terms of the work it does. In terms of local commercial radio, when I go up home, there are two stations, LMFM and Northern Sound. I listen to them, I think they both do a tremendous job, and I do not say so in a remotely patronising way. They do public service broadcasting. I think there are issues outside of community radio. Ultimately, it is for the Minister to make the decision. It is not going to be an RTE decision.

The battle has sometimes been painted as David and Goliath versus RTE but in assessing a decision we need to stand back from some of this area. UTV or Communicorp own 35% of the stations. UTV purchased LMFM for €9 million in 2012 and Galway Bay FM for €20 million and Communicorp bought Today FM and Highland Radio for €200 million so radio stations are valuable. They are less valuable now than they were at the height of the boom but nobody should be under the illusion that if the adverting market returns that radio stations will not be valuable. UTV has just announced a pre-tax profit of €20 million and Communicorp is one of the largest radio owners in the UK.

We also need to stand back and look at how a decision would impact on provincial newspapers. It would impact much more on such newspapers than on us in terms of advertising.

I have tried to have a very good relationship with the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland. I met its chairman, Mr. John Purcell, the other day and said to him that I would like to meet him again in the next number of weeks to see if we have common interests. I appreciate what it does do but let us stand back and examine the facts. All of the licences for commercial radio are exclusive. Even if I owned a provincial newspaper anyone could set up a provincial newspaper and come into the area to set up a free sheet. Commercial radio is different, particularly national commercial radio. I shall not give a definitive statement on the matter but it is a complicated area.

To this day I have never heard the chief executive of UTV or Denis O'Brien say that they want to access public funding for their stations because they know that such funding carries obligations. RTE is reviewed annually by consultants and we must publish talent-presenter fees. Community radio, in particular, is not-for-profit. I am not saying that it does a better job than commercial radio. A lot of local commercial radio does a terrific job.

My final comments may answer some of the questions that may arise later and I ask Mr. Kennedy to comment on some of the defamation issues.