Dan Boyle (Green Party)

The production of such a detailed Bill, with 181 sections, is a testament to the work of the Minister and his officials. All Members take seriously their responsibilities when a Bill is introduced in this House. The Bill provides an opportunity to undertake an overview of broadcasting as it currently operates. I do not consider myself as other than young middle aged but I recall a time, before I could vote, when broadcasting in this State consisted of no more than one radio station and one television station. The radio station commenced broadcasting at 7.30 a.m. and the television station at 5.30 p.m., and both went off the air at 11 p.m. In the decades since, we have seen the emergence of a panoply of new broadcast providers, as well as rapidly emerging new technologies. This Bill is an attempt to address those changes. No legislation, no matter how well drafted and how quickly provided, can keep pace with the speed of technological changes in the area of broadcasting. It is an issue that the Department and we in this House will have to address again in the near future.

The Bill includes several innovative measures. The early sections relate to the introduction of a new body to replace both the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission. Given that the taskforce on public service reform has only begun its deliberations, as a useful first step, we should encourage the formation of new bodies composed of existing bodies that have complementary remits. That is the first welcome reform in this Bill.

Senator Alex White spoke about the second innovation, the selection procedures for board members of the new broadcasting authority and the RTE Authority and the role the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources will play in that regard. We should welcome this. The system of public appointments has been a grey area in the past and we should work towards opening it up in so far as we can. The greater involvement of elected representatives, particularly Oireachtas committees, in assessing the merits of and recommending people for appointment to public bodies on the basis of their experience and abilities should be given maximum encouragement.

Part 3 of the Bill relates to duties, codes and rules and has been the subject of much comment during this debate. Some Members believe that the explicit references to speech and news content might go too far in the context of allowing broadcasters the space to broadcast freely. Unfortunately, however, we have seen, particularly with local radio stations and the commercial considerations that guide them, that we have created stations that are bland and devoid of personality. The necessity for speech content and a particular local news feature helps those stations. This is a general comment; I am aware there are some excellent local stations. However, in the Dublin metropolitan area local radio is represented purely by music stations that are devoid of personality. We must have, at least in legislation, a direction to encourage people down a different road.

The opposite could be the case in terms of the regulations that might follow regarding codes, particularly in the area of advertising. The Minister has already clearly stated that advertising directed at children must be strictly controlled. I believe there is a large consensus in the House in support of that. Other Members have mentioned that such a system already exists elsewhere in the world. If we can convey that agreed consensus, I am satisfied that the regulations that will follow will be what is required.

The area of public service broadcasting and the specific identification and enhancement of the roles of RTE and TG4 are welcome. However, the debate on the Bill and its eventual passage should not indicate that commercial companies, both television and radio, are acceptable in terms of their current public service remit. Public service broadcasting needs to be encouraged among those broadcasters. In general, their public service content is poor. The new radio station, Newstalk 106, is a welcome additional talk radio station but other radio broadcasters and, indeed, the new entrants into the television market have tended to opt for crass commercialism over public information. It is a balance we must always get right in our broadcasting services and should not be an onus imposed solely on RTE and TG4, despite the excellence of TG4, in particular, in view of the short time it has been in existence.

The Bill seeks to prepare the sector for the onset of digital broadcasting and the end of analogue broadcasting after 2012. I am satisfied the Department has been doing the necessary fieldwork to ensure this happens, although we might be a year or two behind other jurisdictions in this regard. In the UK, for example, digital channels have been up and running for up to five years and are becoming very popular. When the stations are eventually on-stream, watching television using digital compatible televisions will change the experience and make it similar to the experience of listening to radio. People already experience this with satellite television. It means turning a dial and having hundreds of stations available rather than settling down to watch a particular programme on a particular station for a given length of time. That will affect the way people watch television.

On satellite television the phenomenon of dedicated stations, sometimes to the most ridiculous subjects, has existed for many years. There are stations dedicated to tarot card readings, for example, while football clubs have specialist stations. While some people might sneer at the concept of a dedicated parliamentary station on digital television, there are far worse examples already on satellite television of how people's attention is being diverted. There are also good examples of parliamentary broadcasting, such as the BBC Parliament channel and C-SPAN in the United States. If we can achieve that level of excellence in our parliamentary broadcasting, we might encourage more people to take an interest in public affairs.

Senator Alex White made some comments about the fund for the independent sector. I am not sure that I share his perspective. The multiplicity of broadcasting stations, both television and radio, has been matched by an increase in the number of people in the independent sector who make programmes that can be sold to broadcasting outlets. That should be encouraged. I am not opposed to the existence of the fund but I am also not opposed to a review of the fund. However, given that there have been inflationary pressures, an increase in the fund is justified. The Bill is a little vague, and might be open to amendment, where it appears to give greater emphasis to independent producers in the television area and less to independent producers in radio. The Minister should be encouraged to review this aspect of the Bill and accept necessary amendments.

The section relating to the television licence is one on which I am probably in disagreement with the Minister. I accept that, given the economic situation, the type of changes we must put in place with the television licence probably cannot be done for several years. The licence is a source of revenue and if the revenue is not provided through a direct licensing system, it would have to be provided from general taxation. However, there is a difficulty in applying the concept of a television licence to advancing technology. In this Bill we are changing the legislative aspect of the licence from a wireless licence to a broadcasting licence. At the same time, however, the receipt of television programmes is possible on all types of technology that are not television set receivers. It is possible to receive television programmes through the Internet and on mobile telephones, for example, and the likelihood is that people will increasingly receive television programmes in that manner rather than in the traditional way. That raises the question of why a licensing system exists and why we have the associated administrative costs. I accept the issue cannot be dealt with in this Bill but I believe that within the next decade, the existence of a television licence and how we administer the costs relating to public service broadcasting will have to be addressed. I am confident the Minister is open to that type of thinking.

I believe I have covered most aspects of the legislation. This is an important, detailed Bill that covers most of the requirements in the sector. Despite its size, I consider it a contribution to an ongoing debate on broadcasting. I am aware the Minister would like to have the opportunity to introduce further legislation in this area, especially with regard to new technology, how we can check the revenue streams and the need to have codes that apply to that technology as they currently apply to terrestrial services. When we have that wider debate we will be better informed as a result of having updated and amended this legislation and put better legislation in place.