Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising his understandable concerns about North West Radio on the Adjournment. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources would like to clarify that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has statutory responsibility for licensing local radio services. The commission, as provided for by this House, is an independent statutory body and the Minister has no role in relation to individual licensing decisions.

I would like to address a specific question asked by the Senator as to whether the Minister has the power to put a stay on an individual licensing decision of the independent regulator. The answer to that question is clear: on the advice available to him, the Minister has no such power. If he had, the regulator could not be considered independent.

The Houses of the Oireachtas have provided that decisions on licensing should be taken by an independent regulator, not by Ministers. Were a Minister to interfere in the licensing process there would be uproar. It would make no sense to establish an independent regulator and then call upon the Minister to intervene if one was not satisfied with the decision taken by the regulator.

The licensing of local radio services is a sensitive matter. As the Senator pointed out, it is a matter involving considerable commercial implications. This is especially the case where a local radio station fails to have a licence renewed, as occurred recently in a number of cases, in most of which the existing local radio stations took part in a competition for a new licence but were unsuccessful. The only reasonable interpretation of what happened is that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland took a view that the successful applicants best met the criteria for the award of the new licences. This does not mean that the unsuccessful applicants would not have provided a high quality service. It means that the commission took a view that the successful applicant would provide a better service. It is important that sight is not lost of the fact that local radio is primarily about the audience.

The only way to avoid hard decisions and controversy would be to grant licences in perpetuity and never redefine franchise areas. While licence holders might welcome this, it would not be in the public interest. It follows that there will inevitably be cases where licensees which have provided a high quality service will still lose out in a competition for a new licence.