Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I support the comments made by my colleague. Everyone in this House will agree with the general rule and law laid down in the 1988 Act and the general practice regarding political advertising here. We only need to consider the United States and one or two other jurisdictions to realise the total nightmare caused by the necessity to fund political advertisements. In the 2008 presidential campaign in the United States candidates are ranked in terms of support by the number of millions of dollars they have accumulated to pay for advertisements later.

I thank the Minister for allowing the Bill to be recommitted in respect of this amendment. The amendment clearly precludes that kind of advertising which would be detrimental to our democracy. Given the moral issues we face at this time, it should be possible for campaign groups and others to make those points. As Deputy Michael Higgins was speaking I was thinking of some of the issues surrounding climate change, the great challenge facing our civilisation. It would be possible for programmes to be flagged as taking a particular point of view on aspects of energy efficiency or climate change. The general line the BCI seems to have taken on the Trócaire advertisement could also be said to preclude such general moral advertising. The amendment is timely and I urge the Minister of State to accept it.

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