Martin Brady (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I worked with him at local authority level some years ago and he is a person who listens and takes points on board.

Senator O'Reilly raised many issues in his contribution and I will address them now before I forget them. I agree with the proposal to cap the levy. I believe we should have more Irish language and cultural content on television and radio. Senator O'Reilly made a relevant point about the glamorisation of drink in television advertising. The Senator and I do not need advertising to avail of drink because we know it is available. The advertisements do not have to encourage us. I do not wish to make light of this but his point is apt because drink is glamorised to such a degree now that a person might almost begin to believe that it is better than medicine. That is a fact.

I had intended to raise an issue in my overall contribution but Senator O'Reilly also mentioned it , namely, the broadcasting of programmes of a religious nature. About five years ago a broadcasting company, United Christian Broadcasting, UCB, set up and operated here for a number of years, taking a signal from the BBC. The programming was very good and featured all religious denominations, not merely Catholic or Protestant ones. It was good for everybody, young and old. There was nice gospel music and good messages. One of the broadcasters was involved in the peace process in Northern Ireland at the time. The company applied for a licence on numerous occasions but was refused because the then Minister deemed it inappropriate to grant a licence to a religious broadcaster of any kind. I ask the Minister to consider that point and perhaps we could re-visit that issue when there is an opportunity.

I welcome many aspects of the Bill but have reservations about others. Senator O'Reilly has pointed out some of these. There have been representations from various groups which is a good thing. That is democracy. They put their points forward and we can learn much from meeting them. I met one such group, Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, IBI, which made some excellent points that I shall explain later. It is important that we meet and interact with such representatives because we gain better knowledge about the area. I do not know the technical aspects of broadcasting. I worked in communications but things have moved on since then.

Section 9 sets down the requisite experience required for persons to be appointed as board members of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, and its two statutory committees. It is important that at least one member of such a board should have a knowledge of the relevant business, in this case, broadcasting. As a former trade union official, I suggest that the system of appointing this person should be by way of direct election from the staff in the organisation. I say this although it is said that there is no democracy in unions any more.

Section 16 provides for the establishment of a superannuation scheme for the staff of the BAI and also provides that the pension entitlements of existing staff should not be adversely impacted by the transition from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, BCI, to the BAI. I would go further and remove the phrase "adversely impacted". I would like to see that changed to read that the employees' status would be retained and that their conditions would not be worsened. Staff in this organisation, as in any other, might be encouraged to participate in a real way if they were given the opportunity to have share options. That might be looked at because it would enhance the progression of the company and have a good effect on staff morale.

Section 23 requires that the BAI draw up a code of conduct with regard to conflicts of interest and ethical behaviour as they should apply to the membership of the authority and its statutory committee staff and to contractors appointed for services. I welcome this, particularly as it pertains to conflicts of interest and ethical behaviour. I do not wish to point fingers at anybody but there are perceptions on the part of the public that there are people in the broadcasting business who have conflicts of interest. I do not say that they have or they have not. A question that is often posed concerns the fact that there are people working in the broadcasting business whose annual salary is twice what the Taoiseach earns. In other words, the Taoiseach is paid half of what such people earn. I wish to make it clear that I am not having a go at anybody. I make this point because I have been asked by members of the public to raise the issue. The person goes to the opening of a supermarket or a town centre, probably for a fee of €10,000. I do not know whether one could regard this as a conflict of interest but it could lead to one. We should examine this matter.

Section 62 provides that the board may not grant a sound broadcasting contract to a person who has been convicted in the previous five years of certain offences relating to wireless telegraphy. It is good to have this provision but it does not go far enough. A person convicted of any criminal offence and not only of an offence connected with broadcasting or radio should not be granted a licence. We know it has happened in other business areas, especially in the taxi business, that people have been granted licences and it is later discovered they had criminal records for offences such as child abuse or rape. I will not go into this any further. This must not be confined to offences related to wireless telegraphy.

Section 70 provides for the awarding of analogue television broadcasting contracts to a television programme service contractor and establishes terms and conditions to apply to the contractor. The section also provides for the continuance of the existing contract held by TV3. I welcome this as I believe TV3 provides a good service. TG4 also provides a good service with brilliant documentaries and European news. It is underrated to a degree.

Section 72 allows the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, to award community content provision contracts for the provision of community television services to people representing local communities. Senator O'Reilly also raised this point. I welcome this provision because it is important. I am not into religion to the degree one might perceive. The Catholic Church has established its own broadcasting units to broadcast mass into the houses of those who are sick and in hospital. These units are in a precarious situation because they do not know whether they are legal. They are going ahead and a blind eye is being turned to them.

We could examine this. It is a necessary service to people who cannot attend religious services. I do not mean Catholic services only but services of all religions. If churches want to provide transmission of services there is not much wrong with it. It might do something for our community if we heard more of it. Section 73 provides that the BAI may carry out an assessment of the needs of the community in respect of broadcasting and this is connected to what I have discussed and I welcome it.

Section 83 established the process for the election of staff members for appointment to the boards of RTE and TG4. Staff members appointed to the board of any organisation should not necessarily be the high flyers on €500,000 a year. They are not necessarily the best people for the board. We do have to go down this road because we do not always get the value out of it that we think we do. The best person could be a clerical officer, technician or a rigger. Will the Minister keep this in mind?

Section 125 provides that the Commission of the Houses of the Oireachtas may establish a free-to-air television service in respect of the proceedings of the Houses of the Oireachtas and certain other matters to be known as the Houses of the Oireachtas channel. Section 126 amends Schedule 1 to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Act 2003 to provide for the funding of the Houses of the Oireachtas channel. This was referred to by the Leader on the Order of Business today. I welcome this because it is important.

It is also important that our local authorities are recognised. As Senator O'Reilly stated, they play a vital role in our communities which filters through to Government. The councillors throughout the country are underrated in what they do. Being a councillor is now a full-time job. Since the most recent local elections, 27 people have resigned from Dublin City Council. Of the people co-opted in their place, 10% have also resigned. The reason is because the job has become so demanding. One attends meetings every day and decisions are made on developments. Senator Brendan Ryan knows about this in Fingal. One must be on the ball and know what one is talking about. People cannot get time off work to attend meetings so they have no option but to resign. My point is that councillors do a tremendous job and work hard but do not receive recognition for it.

As Senator Reilly stated, it would be useful if people could see this work at first hand. Some people believe politics in general is a glamorous job and a bed of roses and that one comes in and swans around eating lunches, drinking wine and attending functions. This is because this is where people see politicians. As most councillors and Senators know, when one attends a partnership launch or other function, one meets the same crew all the time. The politician thinks they must be going around doing this all the time and they think the same about the politician. Of course, they will state, "I met Martin Brady," and will get the response, "Again? He was there last week."

It would be good if the proceedings of the Houses were broadcast to homes and people could see at first hand what we do. The same can be said about our committee system. We had an inquiry into Iarnród Éireann which lasted nine months. Luckily it was televised as we received coverage on TG4. Only for that, nobody would have known about it. People told me they never knew we had such committees. People do not know what we do here. The coverage we receive at present is broadcast too late at night. As Deputy Pat Rabbitte once stated in the Dáil, it is for insomniacs and alcoholics coming in at 2 a.m. It is a fact that the number of viewers at 11.30 p.m. or midnight is not high. We should examine this and broadcast it at an appropriate time when people are up, alert and available to listen to it.

Section 71 provides that the BAI may award content provision contracts to commercial and community radio. I have already made sufficient points on this. I wish to make points on some of the representations we have received from various groups such as the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland. The fast-tracking system proposed in section 67 allows for a contract extension which would not exceed five years. By halving the term of the licence, radio stations would be forced to run their businesses on a short-term plan. As we know, it is difficult to run any business on that basis, irrespective of what type of a business it is. Uncertainty creeps in and staff morale is affected. Many of these issues are not positive when a station is being run on a short-term basis. This provision will make it difficult for stations to attract and retain staff because if a person joins the staff not knowing whether he or she will be employed for five or ten years, for example, the uncertainty will lead to him or her to look around for something else coming down the track and moving on before the station collapses. The provision would also make it difficult to justify investment in a broadcasting organisation.