Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I support Deputy Coveney in this regard. We all recognise that, generally speaking, standards in Irish broadcasting are good, and long may it remain so. Occasionally, however, people have made mistakes, and sometimes that can be extremely distressing for those affected. If that were not the case, there would not be provision for a complaints procedure or right of reply. Of those of us who operate in the public sphere, there are few who have not at some time felt the media have been unfair to us in terms of intrusion into our private lives and so on. However, in this instance, as Deputy Coveney said, it is a clear issue of something factually incorrect having been said. To a family member, it adds to the distress if the person concerned has died and there is no right of reply for the family who are left behind.

I ask the Minister to accept the amendment. It is up to the authority to design the actual scheme and it can consider any difficulties. The one difficulty I see, to be fair to the Minister, is the absence of a timeframe within which the provision could apply. Perhaps there is one, but I cannot see it in the Bill. This could mean a complaint from somebody whose great-grandfather had been a sheep stealer, for example, if it was covered in a history programme. However, the principle that Deputy Coveney has espoused is an important one and we should not lose sight of this. Television is a powerful medium, but when somebody is dead there is no right of reply. It is important that we find some way to establish a right of reply to defend people when they have been maligned, consciously or unconsciously, by a broadcaster.

See this speech in context