Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I move amendment No. 20:

In page 24, to delete lines 33 to 37 and substitute the following:

"(11) Subject to any rule made under subsection (3), meetings of the Authority or a statutory committee shall be capable of being held by telephone or other suitable electronic means whereby all the members of the Authority or the relevant statutory committee can hear and be heard.".

The amendments in this group relate to board procedure and accountability. They are intended to respond to concerns raised by Deputies on Committee Stage on the working of sections 13(11) and 88(7), which provide legal certainty on the use of electronic communications media for board meetings and decision making by RTE, TG4 and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in statutory committees. The wording proposed for the amendment is drawn from section 28(n) of the Heads of the Bill submitted by the Company Law Review Group in association with the report on the Companies Consolidation and Reform Bill to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment in May 2007.

While I hope it would not be the norm for board members to participate by telephone, there will be instances where meetings are necessary at short notice and which may only be conducted by telephone or video conference. These amendments are necessary to ensure that any decision made in such a meeting is afforded legal certainty. It should be noted the application of such provisions will be subject to any rules or procedures set by the organisation concerned under sections 13(3) and 88(5).

With regards to amendment No. 22, sections 21 and 22 of the Bill require that members of the board, staff or contractors of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and its statutory committees must disclose any conflict of interest to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Section 21(2) and 22(1) provide for the steps to be taken on the disclosure of a conflict of interest.

Section 21(3) requires that any conflict of interest raised by a member of the board, the BAI or its statutory committees must be noted in the minutes of the meeting of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland or its statutory committees.

Sections 21 and 22 do not require the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to automatically place such information in the public domain as there may be instances where to place a disclosure into the public domain would serve no public interest but would infringe on that individual's right to privacy. Sections 21 and 22 as constituted are appropriate so I do not propose to accept amendment No. 22.

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