Brendan Kenneally (Fianna Fail)

I very much welcome this Bill and congratulate the Minister on taking an action which will copperfasten the availability of major public events to the general television viewing public. We are all only too well aware of the circumstances which necessitated the Bill, namely, the loss of international soccer matches to the general public. Worse still is the fact that those matches were available to a small minority of viewers who were willing to pay a considerable fee to view the type of event which for the past 30 or 40 years was available free to those who had a television set.

The Bill is an honest and honourable attempt by the Minister to prevent this situation from happening again and, in the process, to be fair to both the event organisers and the television companies, both of which have a legitimate right to make money from the event. It must be said, however, that RTE, the primary and only realistic domestic bidder for the event, did not play fair with the FAI. Whatever its faults and failings, it was most unfair to the FAI to have made it an initial offer for a new contract which was one third lower than what it was paid before.

By virtue of our relatively small population, Ireland is not similar to countries like France, Germany, Spain and so on, which have plenty of TV competition for the available events and where that competition establishes a definite market value. With only one bidder in the process, it is difficult to establish a market value. However, with the entry of Sky Sports to the bidding process, the market took on a whole new life. I do not wish to rake over old coals but it would have been crazy and unrealistic for the FAI to turn down the extra money on offer from Sky Sports which could have been spread around the lower echelons of the organisation to help with development. Suddenly, we were deprived of what we had come to expect as a right and naturally looked to the relevant Minister as an all-powerful father to restore the picture on the broken television. This is what the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern is proposing to do in this welcome legislation.