Seanad debates
Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Broadcasting (Funding) Bill 2003: Committee Stage.
I am particularly pleased the Minister addressed the issue of archiving in the Bill. Will he consider legislating to make archive material available on the Internet, not only in terms of the programmes which will, I hope, result from the legislation, but also RTE's current archive? The reason I ask this question is that Greg Dyke, the director general of the BBC, recently stated that his organisation was seriously considering making its archives available to the general public because it is funded by the taxpayer. Almost 50% of RTE's funding comes from the taxpayer and although it generates a certain amount of overseas income from the sale of its programmes, it is insignificant as a proportion of overall income. I am aware this is a wider issue related to RTE, but given that the section addresses the archiving of material, has the Minister considered legislating to ensure that archive material is made generally available to the public?
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