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

The Labour Party broadly supports the thrust of the Private Members' Bill and in particular the recommendation on the future funding of public service broadcasting set out in the committee report of November 2017. It was recommended that the Minister establish a new scheme to assist with the funding of independent, regional, local and community radio and television to produce local news and current affairs programming. We know what has been done. There are great political and other debates on those stations and RTÉ has a very important role in this regard also. I proposed an amendment to the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2016 which aimed to insert a new section in the Broadcasting Act 2009 to provide that it would be a condition of the awarding of all sound and broadcasting contracts under section 55(8) that at least 30% of the aggregate amount of transmission time allocated to music content in the programming provided under the contract would be reserved for music components that relate to some distinguishing elements of the culture of the island of Ireland. That was voted down, disgracefully, and Fianna Fáil was accused of political cowardice on that occasion by former members of the party who had sat in the House. I will bring it forward in 2019 and I ask Fianna Fáil to consider it carefully. We now have a chance to get it to a committee and deal with it there.

The debate on Irish community music in the Dáil, when I tried to convince politicians from all parties to back the initiative to introduce a quota, was followed by a dry statement from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. It was expertly covered by Ailbhe Conneely of RTÉ, a brilliant journalist. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, admitted that a proposal for an Irish music quota had been submitted to the EU previously but had been withdrawn following complaints to the European Commission that it was not compatible with legislation. This rebuttal of the campaign was worded in such a way as to hide the fact that it was the independent Irish radio sector which had made the complaint to Europe and derailed the quota in the first place. Indeed, that is evident from Niall Stokes who admitted it in an article in Hot Presspublished some time after he stepped down from his role with BAI. Michael O'Keeffe, who remains on the authority, is following that. It is very important to look at this. Any funding that goes to the other stations should be contingent upon achieving this quota because it is farcical how things are going. What do our actors, musicians, composers and artists need to do to get the House to wake up to what is happening in our country? The powers that be have completely abandoned our national culture. They have only one thing in mind when it comes to culture, namely how to milk it for monetary profit until every vestige of artistic value is sapped from it while giving our artists little or no support. Our actors are on their knees as are our songwriters. Look at the likes of Michael English who employs 15 people every night. Every petrol station is open and every restaurant and hotel is booked because of these guys. One can name a whole clatter of them, including Johnny Brady, TR Dallas, Tony Evans and Foster and Allen. They were in the Gallery. Tom Allen, a former Fianna Fáil councillor, was so disappointed. Let us get this back and teach the Government a lesson. I ask Fianna Fáil to get behind it. It should forget about Communicorp and those boys writing to us and let us get to the real stuff here.

We need to wake up to the impoverishment of a section of our community which has given so much of its talent to create the global image that now exists that we are an artistic nation at heart, second to none in Europe. The support we give to the broadcasting sector - this is crucial - should be contingent on that sector supporting homegrown talent. In truth, the sector does not currently support talented Irish artists. Our actors, writers, musicians and composers have been sidelined in the past 30 years without fully realising how that happened. If anyone in the House wants to gain an honest appraisal of Irish broadcasting in our time and how it has abandoned support for local talent, I ask them to read the relevant chapter of The Bill, a book which will be launched tomorrow night in Galway by Johnny Duhan. The title refers to Bill Whelan of Riverdance fame who came to the House over 30 years ago to try to show us the crisis we were already heading for even back then. We could not listen to him, however. I repeat, therefore, that the support we offer to our broadcasters must be contingent on their support for homegrown talent first. Mr. Tubridy is great for producing a show on Irish music which gained 550,000 listeners, but there is more talent in Ireland than Nathan Carter. It cannot be the one thing. RTÉ ends up with its presenters interviewing each other for entertainment. There are lots of people across the country: let them interview them and give them a chance. Let us look at our own national culture. RTÉ produces six programmes on the Fleadh, which was attended by 500,000 people in Drogheda last year. It should be covered by weeks of programming. RTÉ better wake up to ensure that our greatest national event - the Olympics of artistic and musical culture - is covered much more. FleadhTV has more than 1.4 million viewers. Let us be real here and support Irish artists and composers. I will be back to the House with a Bill before the end of the year which I have no doubt Fianna Fáil will support because its supporters will ensure it does.

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