Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

On the disability issue, I cite the access rules developed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland as one example of what this regulatory process costs the industry. It is progressive and delivers in terms of the targets set to 2014 of RTE being 100% accessible in terms of subtitling and so on. Regulators do important work to deliver on some of our ambitions regarding disability and standards that otherwise would not get addressed and would not be delivered on. That work is a example of the good that comes out of some of the spending on these regulatory systems. We shall see what we can do to get that onto the various boards we will have to appoint, not only the TG4 board but also the new broadcasting authority.

To give details on the interim board that is in place in RTE under the 1960 Act, I asked two of the members of the existing board to stay on on an interim basis for this period. They bring particular experience, especially in the finance side which will be useful because the broadcaster is in a very difficult financial position. That knowledge will then pass on to the new authority.

It is my intention then to take the six members from that authority, along with the four members proposed by the joint Oireachtas committee, and re-establish the new authority under the new legislation as soon as it is passed. There is a timeline around that. We have to get our business done. Under the legislation a three months timeframe is given and we will face a tight deadline to get the work done to establish the RTE authority as a new authority under this legislation, taking six of the members of the current interim board with the names proposed by RTE. Also, under the legislation there will be a requirement for the staff in RTE to vote through a further member to allow the staff representative to be on the authority on that basis. The intention is that the interim members of the board would progress on to that new authority as soon as we have the four names from the joint Oireachtas committee and the legislation is passed.

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