Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the Business Committee for facilitating this debate. I called for it last week at the committee.

It is really important that we put on the record, as legislators, our views on the announcement by the director general of RTÉ last week, leaked to The Irish Times, as others have said, which was really putting people on the back foot. It is very important that we address this issue today and that the Minister is here to respond.

I am very disappointed in the Minister's contribution because there does not seem to be any sense of urgency on the issues that were raised in the RTÉ report, which I have here. The Minister appears to be kicking the can down the road and leaving any major change for possibly five years. I do not know what RTÉ is going to be like in five years or what condition public service broadcasting is going to be in then. Public service broadcasting is extraordinarily important. Others have talked about the kind of news media people are subject to in other countries, where they do not get objective facts or the kind of service that we get from RTÉ, and indeed from other stations as well. It is vital for public interest, but also for the whole public discourse, that we get proper public service broadcasting. I am very concerned if the Government presents this as an RTÉ problem that it will not get involved in. The Minister must get involved in this early on.

Some pages in the report are headed "the TV licence is broken", "this is fixable" and "urgent action is required". These are headings for three different pages in the report. My former colleague, Pat Rabbitte, when he was Minister did a considerable amount of work in changing the model of the licence fee and of the funding of RTÉ. This was continued by Senator Alex White. This seems to have been left on a shelf for the last three years. I would be really concerned if it was going to be left for another five years.

The report states: "the decision to delay a meaningful reform of the TV licence system for a further five to six years will, if unchanged, have a catastrophic impact on the future of public service media, the future of the Irish independent production, and the broader cultural and creative sectors." I want the Government to take this seriously and to take action.

I am also concerned about the response from the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, last week which seemed to imply that RTÉ could get a whole lot more money from advertising, which we know it cannot because it is capped. The way in which the Government has defended itself and has stepped aside from the decisions that have to be made is disingenuous.

I sympathise with the RTÉ Authority but I do not agree with many of its proposed solutions. The proposals do not take account of RTÉ's role as the national public service broadcaster. The positive developments, which are outlined in the report, include new content, life TV moments and big events, an integrated media centre and a new digital infrastructure and they are all centred in Donnybrook, Dublin 4. The downside is outside of the capital, particularly in Limerick. The Government should stop this Dublin-centric plan which goes against the goals of the national planning framework. All of the Government Ministers should be concerned, because this is re-centring what RTÉ is doing back into Dublin and to some extent into Cork and it is not acceptable.

The removal of Lyric FM from Limerick is positively destructive. The station has been firmly rooted in the cultural life of the city since it was set up their 20 years ago. It sustains and is sustained by a wide variety of cultural organisations and venues. A Big Roar of Support music event is starting in the Irish Chamber Orchestra's home in the University of Limerick at 5.30 p.m. This will include the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Irish Chamber Choir, the Limerick Choral Union, Voices of Limerick, An Cór, the Gúnas Choir, Seoda, East Clare Community Choir and students from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, which Members will know is based in the University of Limerick. The people of Limerick are fighting back against RTÉ's plans and we want the Government to support us. There is no justification for taking Lyric FM out of Limerick. Lyric FM costs €4.31 out of each person's licence fee of €130 per year. It will still cost, I estimate, at least half of that or maybe more to run it from Dublin and Cork. It will cost some fine people jobs because they cannot uproot their families and move. It is particularly unfair to those employees who have given their commitment to the policy of Lyric FM for the past 20 years to operate out of Limerick and to expect them to move their families and their lives.

I was very concerned when I heard Dee Forbes on the radio saying that of the voluntary redundancies that RTÉ is seeking, they are expecting a significant number of those to come from Lyric FM. In other words, people based in Limerick and who work for Lyric FM are going to be forced to opt for voluntary redundancy because they cannot afford to move to Dublin or Cork, or will not move their children out of their schools etc. That is wrong.

I have already called on RTÉ to respond to the offer from the president of the University of Limerick, Dr. Des Fitzgerald, to provide a home for Lyric FM on the university campus when the lease on its present location expires, which I understand will happen at the end of 2020. I am calling on the Minister now to insist that this option is explored positively. The University of Limerick, UL, is already home to the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and it has an excellent media facility, with graduates and a postgraduate course in media journalism etc. It is a perfect home. Practitioners and academics in the university already have close ties with Lyric FM and it would be a very good fit for the station to move there. It would be a profound blow to the artistic and cultural identity of Limerick if Lyric FM is removed. This is not and cannot be a fait accompli. I am asking the Minister and the Government to stand with us and tell RTÉ that it cannot take Lyric FM out of Limerick. It is as simple as that. We need firm commitments from the Minister.

I know this is a wider issue and that there are general issues of significant public importance as to the future of RTÉ and public service broadcasting. For the people who work in Lyric FM, for the people of Limerick who depend on that integration with Lyric FM, and for the health of our cultural life in the city, we really need a commitment that Lyric FM will stay in Limerick. It is a tiny amount of the savings that RTÉ is looking for and it is not acceptable that Lyric FM would be taken out of Limerick. I hope that the Minister will not just ignore this, that the Government will respond, that RTÉ will be required to respond to Dr. Des Fitzgerald's offer, and that there will be meaningful engagement so that Lyric FM can stay in the city of Limerick.

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