Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This issue has been exercising a number of people, including myself and numerous musicians over the years. The abject failure of our national airwaves to afford a forum for our talented Irish musicians has come to public attention again by way of an excellent polemic on the subject by Johnny Duhan, a Galway-based composer, singer and musician who is originally from Limerick. His pedigree goes back to Grannies Intentions and his song "Don't Give Up Till It's Over" is acclaimed worldwide.

Mr. Duhan's well-argued and constructed thesis on the subject leads one to conclude he is on terra firmawhen he alludes to the French position, which is to guarantee air time for its own music. Nothing except the lack of goodwill and ambition is stopping Ireland from pursuing a similar policy. It appears that more than two decades ago the then French Government demanded and secured approval at EU level to introduce legislation which permits a quota system of at least 40% of French music to be played on French radio on the simple grounds that its culture and language were threatened by the proliferation of English-based popular music then taking root across the airwaves with no geographical boundaries.

With regard to equality of treatment for its citizens, there is no reason Ireland could not avail of a similar legislative exemption if the Irish Government had the will to pursue a similar policy. It is well argued by Mr. Duhan that we are more vulnerable than any other EU country as we are very near England, and as many of our singers generally sing in English we are more exposed and susceptible to the cultural influence of England and the US than any of our EU partners. Irish musicians and artists have a huge task to try to maintain and protect their cultural identity, as Johnny Duhan so eloquently put it in a recent article in the Sunday Independent. He asserts the fact that they manage to survive this mammoth struggle with such a low level of support from radio is a mark of the strength of their music, literary heritage and abilities.

I support unequivocally Mr. Duhan's argument that there has been too much placid acceptance by the Government and authorities of the view that Ireland would not be allowed by the EU to legislate for a similar quota system as happened in France. Who advanced the rather spurious argument to back up this inaction, that the introduction of such legislation to pursue a quota system would give us an unfair advantage over our EU musical counterparts and so discriminate against them? It is nothing but a dose of bureaucratic twaddle; anything to portray ourselves as supplicants or poodles who must always be seen as good Europeans and always obedient. Johnny Duhan undermines this argument when he states our European musical counterparts have a clear advantage over the Irish by the fact they sing primarily in their own language, because radio audiences throughout Europe still have an appetite to hear a high proportion of music in their native tongue.

Radio is very important for musical acts. It can turn little-known acts into big acts and move them out of pub backrooms and into theatres. It can truly make or break an act. Sadly, in Ireland, it is breaking them in the wrong way, by breaking their backs because by and large it ignore them completely. Irish bands of all genres do not get fair airplay. Stations such as RTE and other commercial stations should have a quota for the amount of Irish music played and they should step up to the mark. We must remember it is Raidió Teilifís Éireann. France is the only country in Europe with a specific quota for national music. In Ireland, there are voluntary commitments under the Broadcasting Association of Ireland licence whereby the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland makes certain independent stations play a certain amount of music. However, what is defined as Irish in these situations can be alarming. One Direction features an Irish man, Niall Horan, of whom Mullingar is very proud and he is a great personal friend, so it can be construed as Irish. Rihanna recorded vocals for a hit in Dublin and she became Irish. A Kylie Minogue hit, played off the radio some years ago, was classified as Irish because parts of it were recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. Crazy loopholes such as these means we need a broad quota of Irish music.

RTE is meant to be a public service broadcaster, but its main stations do little for public service when it comes to broadcasting Irish music and Irish artists. In the UK, BBC radio promotes emerging acts with gusto but in Ireland the chances are one will hear the same international hit time and time again. The best daytime radio on RTE is Ronan Collins on Radio 1 because he has a genuine love and appreciation of Irish music and plays all sorts of music. Only John Creedon later in the evening is the same. For the most part, RTE Radio 1 and RTE 2fm care little for Irish music. It is time our national broadcasters started to take this matter seriously and I ask the Minister to ensure this is taken on board.

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