Brendan Kenneally (Fianna Fail)

As a member of the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, I am delighted to have this opportunity to discuss this report on local radio and the licensing process. It is particularly appropriate that we should be doing so in the Seanad, as the rapporteur for the committee is a Member of the House, Senator Kathleen O'Meara, and I compliment her on the great work she has done in researching the huge volume of information, contacting the various local radio stations, collating the results so clearly and effectively and publishing this excellent report. I should point out that there was cross-party support within the committee for this report and I am quite sure this will be reflected in the Seanad.

Even if this report was not before us today, we should be discussing local radio, as the system has been in existence, legally, for 15 years. Stations have settled into a pattern and have created their own place in the media and our population. It is time to look back and reflect on the success of what was an entirely new medium, or at least a new version of an old one, which was designed to be closer to the people, particularly in provincial areas. We can also look at the shortcomings which have come to light along the way, though it is clear that the successes and advantages of local broadcasting far outweigh any arguments we might be able to find against it.

When local broadcasting was first introduced, or at least when it was first put on a legal footing, very few people could have foreseen the great success it has turned out to be. Certainly, there were those who, for a variety of reasons, would have liked to gain access to the people of their region for the promotion of community items, advertising a product, or just expanding an audience they might have had through theatre or the print media, but the vast majority of our people would have been unaware of the huge potential of this new opportunity, even though the then pirate radio stations were quite successful at a variety of levels.

Some of the local radio stations have turned out to be hugely successful, reflected in the very large sums for which some have changed hands through the years. Everyone, for one reason or another, probably has a different way of looking at these stations from the time they were set up a decade and a half ago. Quite obviously, the number and size of the bids for some of the stations demonstrates that there is a high level of interest in the sector among the business community and investors now wish to get involved.

I wonder at this stage if the market should be allowed to dictate what is happening. Perhaps the time has come to make more licences available and allow the market to decide which of them succeed or fall by the wayside. There would, of course, be a problem with the radio spectrum which is available for transmission purposes in each area and in any event this is not what this report primarily addresses. Another reservation is in regard to quality of programming. We would not want stations just to pander to the interests of the spending population, or any single interest.