Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is an interesting article by Stephen Collins in The Irish Timestoday in which he argues that new politics is not working. Most often when it is not working, the blame can be laid at the feet of the Government. I can think of lots of examples to illustrate this, including the Petroleum and Other Mineral Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill introduced by Deputy Bríd Smith. That legislation deserves to get to Committee Stage but is being blocked by weird mechanisms which are keeping it in a legislative limbo. My party's Waste Reduction Bill 2017 is in a similar position. I read in today's Irish Independentthat it is being officially blocked by the Government because it is in breach of European rules. In actual fact, the Bill is ahead of Europe in some ways and completely reflects what the European Commission has argued must be done in this area. It beggars belief that a Government and a Department can say black is white in that way and just block legislation. The Waste Reduction Bill is awaiting a money order.

On the other hand, there are examples of new politics working well. It often works when members of the Government and Opposition work together. I am sure Deputy Dooley will agree that the work of the Joint Committee on Climate Action is an example of this. The work being done by that committee is proper politics. The committee has held more than 30 meetings at this stage, many of which were hours long, during which members fought over every line. That is good politics. Another example of this Dáil working well is the work done by Government and Opposition Deputies at the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment on the future funding of public service broadcasting. That is as good an example as one can get of new politics working. The work of that committee was done properly and was not rushed. We invited all of the relevant stakeholders to participate and took a very innovative approach. We had a day long session at Dublin Castle at which we listened to arguments from every side. We listened to people of different ages and from every media background. We took our time and examined the issue in detail. We came up with a series of recommendations that aim to address the crisis in the profitability of Irish media whose survival is under threat. We came up with practical measures and, while not all of them might be acceptable to Government, the committee's clear aim was to raise significant additional revenue that would go to a range of different Irish media providers, including RTÉ, Virgin Media as well as local and independent radio and other digital and print media. We took the brave decision to do some of that hard work, to make some hard calls and to provide solutions. The Government has done nothing and I am not sure why. It is not as if it is going to get a political kicking if it implements some of the measures suggested by the committee. One of the measures is to allow RTÉ to require Sky TV to bid for transmission rights. That is not an attack on the Irish public but it could raise a significant sum. We suggested a change to the levy on local radio stations, which is not going to be an unpopular or difficult measure to implement. While there was no suggestion of an increase in the licence fee itself, nobody can agree with the current system where up to 15% of people do not have a television licence. That is an obvious inequity. The committee sought to iron out the inequities in the system and to restore revenues to Irish media organisations which are in crisis but the Government has done precisely nothing in that regard.

This is not an insignificant issue. All of the other analysis done by the communications committee shows that in many countries now, the very fabric of democracy is threatened by the media debate on what is happening in politics. A report was issued last week by the House of Commons on disinformation and fake news, which we will ignore at our peril. It is not just the fact that the bulk of the revenue from digital advertising is going to Facebook and Google; it is also the fact that the structure of those media organisations, in some ways, leaves them open to exploitation and extremism, as referenced by Deputy Eugene Murphy earlier. These digital platforms can generate a kind of nasty bubble, with no real editorial or quality control. We get proper editorial and quality control from professional journalists in Irish media companies and this is not an insignificant issue for our democracy, 100 years after the first meeting of Dáil Éireann.

I do not know if Stephen Collins is right in his predictions on the length of the current Dáil but regardless of how long this Government lasts, the Minister has an obligation to act. If he does not do so, he will have to answer the question as to why, in this instance, new politics was not able to deliver what everyone agrees are necessary measures. I have yet to hear an answer to that. I acknowledge that he is relatively new to the job and that his brief is complex and includes a range of different portfolios. However, he has a chance to start implementing some of the practical measures suggested in the committee's report. If he thinks that the proposals for a fund for the independent broadcasting sector needs to be tweaked, he can do so. It is my understanding that Deputy Dooley envisages the BAI managing it, similar to the existing fund which works well. That fund has delivered good programming and is compliant with European state aid rules and so on. There is no significant legislative or administrative burden involved in extending the existing broadcasting fund.

If the Minister does not want to do anything on the licence fee, although he should, then he should examine the issue of transmission rights. The fact that Sky TV is taking €500 million out of the country every year and we are doing nothing, that another €500 million goes to Google and Facebook and that the Irish media is left to manage on crumbs is just not good enough. The Government cannot continue to ignore this issue because of the fear of a political backlash. There would not be a backlash were the Government to implement some of the practical measures proposed.

The Minister has to act quickly in the remaining months of this Parliament and pay respect to the work that all Members, including Deputies Naughton, Dooley, Stanley, me and others, did in that committee. It was proper politics and policymaking. It is time it was implemented.

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