Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

In regard to resources for those who work on committees, there is a lack of availability of contributions made because the staff is not available to provide the blacks quickly enough so that people can report in turn to regional and local media on issues that are raised. These are practical issues that need to be addressed if the committee system is to work. The issues I have suggested include absence of autonomy from the Executive, resources, space, staff, media disinterest and so on.

I welcome the Taoiseach's interest in the channel that would cover our proceedings. As a former Minister with responsibility for broadcasting, who was most vigorous in supporting public service broadcasting, it is important to bear in mind that RTE is not simply funded by the licence fee. It is a mixed model of broadcasting. I am now in favour of separate total coverage of the proceedings of Parliament, which is the only way to get a full range of parliamentary procedure.

These are all issues on which I would be very glad to make a longer submission. It is not a step in the right direction to ask us as elected people whether we are happy as customers. We are not customers or clients. We are representatives and legislators. It is a negative issue to be conducting this kind of trendy irrelevance by asking people about customer satisfaction. That is not the issue in a parliament. The issue is that parliaments are in trouble for many different reasons some of which are contextual. Although it would cost a great deal, would the Taoiseach favour having a separate autonomous complete broadcasting system? That is the only way to avoid issues of editing. It is the only way to be able to respect the national broadcaster. RTE should be free. Because it is dependent on the licence fee it should be separate from Government.

I was a former Minister with responsibility for broadcasting. I wrote a report on digital broadcasting when I was a member of the education and science committee. With the development of technology and particularly the digital facility, it should be left to citizens, schools and other groups to download anything they want from the proceedings of Parliament in plenary, committee or specialist session. They can then make their own programmes, which would be far more democratic and would a better contribution in citizenship than relying on the casualness of editing.

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