Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Public service broadcasting is an essential ingredient of a functioning democracy and we should do anything we can to support it. That said, this Bill is quite specific. I wish to raise two issues. One relates to the Irish language and the other relates to community radio. Deputy Dooley already referred to the matter regarding community radio stations. I am not sure why the Broadcasting Authority has been left with discretion regarding the imposition of a levy on a community radio station. More importantly, a community radio station with an income of over €250,000 will be subject to the levy. As was pointed out, that income comes from the State, so one arm of the State is giving the money and another arm is imposing a levy. It does not make sense. I would appreciate if the Minister would examine that.

The second matter relates to the Broadcasting Act 2009, which the Minister is amending in certain respects. There is no mention of the Irish language. I am not sure if the Minister gave consideration to that or if there is still time to do it. I refer the Minister to the "Tuarascáil ar na Dúshláin a Bhaineann le Craoltóireacht na Gaeilge". Sin tuarascáil a d'fhoilsigh muid i mBealtaine 2019, cúpla mí ó shin. It deals with the challenges facing broadcasting in Ireland. The Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands produced the report last May and made a number of recommendations, two of which are very basic, maidir le reachtaíocht agus rialú:

1. Go dtreiseofaí le práinn na míreanna faoin nGaeilge san Acht Craolacháin 2009 chun cur ar chumas Údarás Craolacháin na hÉireann...polasaithe Gaeilge gníomhacha a fhorbairt i bpáirt le craoltóirí an Stáit.

2. Go n-aithneofaí 'Craoltóireacht na Gaeilge' mar phríomhdhualgais in aon sainmhíniú nua de 'craoltóireacht sheirbhísí poiblí' in aon reachtaíocht chumarsáide leasaithe nó nuadhréachtaithe.

To go back to that in English, we asked that the Broadcasting Act 2009 be amended. A number of specific provisions in the Act are not strong enough with regard to when a commercial radio station is granted a licence. There is an obligation in respect of the Irish language but it is extremely weak, as is the monitoring of it. Having listened to a number of presentations to the committee, we asked that it be examined with a view to increasing the power of the Broadcasting Authority, in the first place, and increasing the duty on the radio stations to comply with the obligation to broadcast in Irish.

That arose from a number of presentations, but I refer the Minister to one in particular. It is the research from Dr. John Walsh, University College Galway, and Dr. Rosemary Day, Coláiste Mhuire Gan Smál, Ollscoil Luimnigh. The research is very interesting. They pointed out that in 30 of years of broadcasting by local radio stations no research had been carried out on whether they were complying with their duty, however weak it is, under the 2009 Act. They appeared before the committee twice. In their research they contacted 59 stations. Some 53 responded, which was quite a good response. The 53 that responded said, in a collaborative way, that they were not broadcasting, or broadcasting very little, in Irish and gave their reasons. The two researchers went back to them a second time and then appeared before the committee.

The findings were that the number of weekly hours broadcast in Irish or bilingually is very low compared to the stations' overall outputs. The average weekly output is 3.23 hours, including repeats. For the most part, programmes in Irish are broadcast outside peak hours, which is after 7 p.m., overnight or early on Sunday morning. Of the commercial stations, by far the highest weekly Irish language output is from youth stations such as iRadio. They have a much higher output, but the majority of these hours are broadcast overnight when listenership is negligible. Removing iRadio, which is the youth radio, would decrease the average output to less than two hours per week per station. The next highest output of any station is on the Spin youth station. Six hours on both SpinSouthWest and the 103.8 stations are 3.6% of their output. I could give more figures, but the message from this research, interestingly, is that the stations directed to the youth had a higher content of Irish programmes and the other stations had minimal content or nothing.

The research revealed that four commercial stations - Galway Bay FM, which has since improved, KCLR FM, Midwest Radio and Today FM - and one community station broadcast no Irish in their schedules. Four commercial radio stations have no dedicated Irish language or bilingual programme and only broadcast Irish language or bilingual inserts three or four times a week. It is quite astounding with regard to Gaeltacht communities. Raidió na Gaeltachta is not involved as the research only deals with commercial and community radio stations. There are Gaeltacht districts in seven counties and they are listed in the research. None of the local Cork stations broadcasts full programmes in Irish. It also deals with Kerry and Galway. Despite a large Gaeltacht area in Galway, no Irish language material is broadcast on the local radio station, although it has improved minimally since then. MidWest Radio in Mayo broadcasts nothing in Irish although there are Gaeltacht areas in its area. Highland Radio in Donegal has 3.37 hours per week.

The absence of Irish language programming in local stations is significant due to their high listenership within their franchise area, as successive pieces of research have shown.

There is a serious problem here in the shape of the weakness of the Broadcasting Act 2009. The conclusions are that, 30 years after the legislation for independent radio in Ireland, the Irish language has only a marginal role on radio stations other than those broadcasting in Irish. This is in spite of the statutory provisions under the 2009 Act regarding Irish in the licensing process that obliges all stations to include it in their programming. However, with a small number of exceptions, stations broadcast only minimal amounts of Irish, almost invariably outside of peak hours. The legislation is weak and imprecise regarding the Irish language. A specific section states that the contracts awards committee under the broadcasting authority is obliged only to have regard to Irish when making a decision on awarding a licence. What that means is not even spelt out.

There are many other recommendations relating to the broadcasting authority. A very specific recommendation for Government was chun an reachtaíocht a threisiú, that is, to strengthen the 2009 Act. I hope the Minister will look at it as it is very specific and it is not a huge amount of work. It suggests looking at the Broadcasting Act in two or three sections to strengthen the ability of the broadcasting authority to insist on a certain level of Irish programmes being broadcast on commercial and community radio stations. It is difficult for me to stand here mar Theachta Dála as cathair dhátheangach atá ar thairseach na Gaeltachta is mó sa tír agus a bheith ar an eolas anois, 30 bliain tar éis na stáisiúin a theacht ar an aer, nach bhfuil Gaeilge ar bith ar fhormhór na stáisiúin raidió.

I hope the Government will consider my suggestions. If it does not do so, I will be forced to bring in amendments. I would prefer to work with the Minister, given our obligations under the Constitution relating to the Irish language and the fact that this legislation could be suitable with the addition of just a few sections.

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