Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for tabling amendments Nos. 95 and 98. These arise as a result of an issue raised with me, which I raised with him on Committee Stage and they concern assisting in the completion of independent television or sound broadcasting programmes. That is welcome and my concern has now been dealt with.

I will focus on amendment No. 97. There has been ongoing discussion through the consideration of this Bill on whether we should require RTE to provide a percentage of television revenue to independent production or stipulate a figure. The Minister has said he does not like setting figures because it is a blunt instrument yet in this case we are setting a figure of €40 million. A more subtle and appropriate way of doing this is to set a percentage figure because that takes account of RTE revenue, how much it can afford to spend and how much it spends on everything else. The major fear of independent production companies is that, in order to cut costs, they would be the ones first to be cut because they are easy pickings. That is not likely to happen in a significant way because RTE is very reliant on the skills base that exists in the independent sector. The percentage figure is the more appropriate way of dealing with this although I am told the Minister is not inclined to accept this. However, this is a mistake.

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