Seanad debates

Thursday, 1 February 2007

Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2006: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Brendan RyanBrendan Ryan (Labour)

I apologise to the Minister if my remarks are slightly more disorganised than usual as I am standing in for my colleague, Senator O'Meara. I am a technophile and all these matters fascinate me. As an engineer, I have some belief that I can understand at least some of the technology. Ós rud é gur luadh a ainm, ba mhaith liom a rá, agus muid ag plé cúrsaí craolacháin, gur mhór an chailliúint é Seán Mac Réamoinn, fear iontach, den todhchaí i gcónaí, cé go raibh a chuid fréamhacha sa tseanaimsir. B'fhear é a bhí ag féachaint i dtreo na todhchaí i gcónaí, agus is mór an chailliúint dúinn é.

I share some of Senator Kenneally's concerns about coarseness. I would like the Minister to throw this around some time. One age group that is of huge interest to the radio broadcast medium is the 15-25 age group. All my children have passed beyond the age of 15 and are into their twenties. We were, and still are, a far from puritanical family. However, I have always had a significant reservation about the appropriateness of the same radio stations targeting both 15 year olds and 25 year olds. There is an enormous difference in outlook, maturity, life experience and everything else between a 15 year old and a 25 year old. Yet, every commercial radio station, including, I believe, RTE on its commercial mandate, stampede each other to get at that market.

This is an issue for the regulatory authorities. It affects simple as matters like alcohol advertising, but it is also as complex as the value system implicit in the approaches used, such as attitudes to sexuality and also appropriate models of behaviour in terms of the use of language and such like. This is nothing to do with censorship. I do not care what is broadcast as long as it is not broadcast under one guise and aimed at more than one sector. What is appropriate for a 25-year old who is out at work, living away from home, probably sexually experienced and drinking for seven or eight years can hardly be appropriate for a 15-year old barely beyond junior certificate. This is not a beat the Government session, I simply refer to the way broadcasting has evolved not just here but all over Europe. If we are in favour of giving our children the space to be children, which is something about which I feel strongly, that issue needs to be considered. Otherwise, we accept a 15-year old is a fully functioning adult in which case we give them votes, lower the age of consent to 15 and do many other things. We should not make policy in one area and do the opposite in another area.

On the topic of coarseness, the late and wonderful Seán Mac Réamoinn, whom I mentioned earlier, was one of the founders of the Merriman School dedicated to the memory of the author of Cúirt an Mheán-Oíche which until about 40 years ago was talked about in academic circles as a wonderful example of Irish from 200 years ago but the content, theme and colourful and earthy language was not regarded as a topic of conversation for decent people. We must be careful about words like "coarseness". Culture changes but even as one whose language is not something to boast about, I sometimes wince at the ease with which language that is more appropriate to a pub at 11 o'clock at night is used. All of us public servants and public officials have obligations in that regard.

Cuirim fáilte roimh pé neamhspleáchas atá á chur ar fáil do TG4. Tá ag éirí go maith leis, cé go bhfuil figiúirí don lucht féachana le sé mhí anuas beagáinín níos ísle ná a bhíodar bliain ó shin. Níl mé iomlán cinnte cad ina thaobh go bhfuil a leithéid tar éis tarlúint. Nevertheless, TG4 has a 5% or 6% audience share. I am tired of commentators talking about it. That is the rate Channel 5 and Channel 4 in Britain have always struggled to reach. TG4 is successful and its Irish language programmes are among those achieving high viewer numbers. "No Béarla", for example, was a wonderfully provocative series of programmes that had quite an impact on viewers generally. It sent reverberations through society about attitudes to our first official language. Everybody says TG4 has been a great success.

I could make a great speech about lateness. The fact is we are very late with digital terrestrial television. The world will live without digital terrestrial television. As a number of people stated, the idea that there is an endless new world because we have more television channels is not true. However, our nearest neighbour is about to switch off analogue television and that will have a direct and immediate effect on anybody in Ireland who is not using a satellite dish or who does not have a cable or MMDS service. That is a fact and therefore there is an immediacy about the issue.

There is a particular irony about a country that masquerades as being technologically advanced, where terms like e-technology and e-government are bandied about even though we are second last on the list according to the National Competitiveness Council. I have a mountain of paper around me and no screen in front of me. Half the Parliaments of the world have a built-in computer system on their desks where information is readily available. Senator Mooney referred to existing legislation being available at the push of a button in order that one can see at a glance the context. We are so far behind. We make wonderful token gestures but that is all. We have not yet converted. In this House——

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