Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on bringing forward this important piece of legislation. This feels something like "Back to the Future" because during my first term in the Seanad in 1988, when, due to renovations here, we sat in the ante room, a Broadcasting Bill was introduced by the then Minister, Mr. Ray Burke. That Bill caused a political stir because it provided for the introduction of advanced forms of local and independent radio and even television. At the time buzz words included Century Radio and Radio Ireland. There has been a lot of change since then and broadcasting legislation must be updated, so I welcome this Bill.

This is a substantial Bill, given the number of sections before us — it is a little like the Lisbon treaty in that, I concede, I have not read every page. I hope my colleague and friend from the Sinn Féin Party does not ask me to stop speaking because I have not read the entire Bill. There are some issues I would like to go into in the time available to me.

The subtitling of programmes for the hard of hearing is an issue I have raised on many occasions through the years in both Houses. We all know people who enjoy the subtitling service and who would not get value from television without it. I understand this subject is covered in section 43 and I hope that as a result a stronger emphasis will be placed on this service with a stronger obligation attached to its provision. Admittedly, the subtitling service for pre-recorded programmes is excellent but news, current affairs and live programmes need more investment. The news service is very poor on subtitling. Fortunately, all of the Members here have a good level of hearing but if they turn down the volume on their televisions and try to follow the news by reading the subtitles they will find the service inadequate. I hope that the obligation under this legislation will be strongly enforced and that there will be additional investment made in the area, not only by the national broadcasting service but by independent channels, to ensure people who are hard of hearing enjoy a better quality of service and quality of life.

I do not wish to dwell on this point too long but important programmes, such as the nine o'clock news, are not necessarily entirely comprised of live broadcasts. Many reports are pre-recorded and there is no excuse for such poor subtitling in those cases. If Members do not believe what I say they should watch the six o'clock news or nine o'clock news tonight, turn down the volume and see whether they can follow it by using the subtitles. The service is not as good as it should be and I would like to see an improvement.

I welcome what many of my colleagues said about an Oireachtas channel. Apparently we are all going to become TV stars over the course of the next few months and years. A parliamentary channel would be beneficial, although it would not be "Top of the Pops" with regard to viewing figures initially. There are continual complaints from all sides of the House about lack of coverage and biased or unrepresentative coverage of the business of the Oireachtas. As Senator Ó Murchú rightly pointed out, 99% of all the excellent, thorough work done in this and the other House and, particularly, at the committees goes almost universally unreported and unregarded. A parliamentary channel would be helpful in this regard. Most of the business of politics practised in Leinster House is of enormous short-term and long-term value to the people of Ireland. The possibility of spreading the worth of our work to a greater extent is something to which we can look forward with a degree of enthusiasm. I am hopeful there will be early progress in this regard.

I hope the parliamentary channel will not simply cover the Dáil and Seanad but also the European Parliament and the politics of Europe. RTE has a ten or 20 minute slot once a month on European politics, which is entirely insufficient. I credit RTE for at least making the effort to provide some coverage, although it is not as instructive, informative or substantive as it should be. The new parliamentary channel might give the Irish people an opportunity to see on a more regular basis and at close quarters the work of the European Parliament which, again, is a forum in which decisions of major importance to the people of this country are being taken on a regular basis.

With regard to the coverage of politics — moving beyond the question of a parliamentary channel — my colleague Senator O'Toole spoke earlier of his pleasure at the national broadcaster's coverage of the US presidential primary elections. This is a matter I have addressed in the House a few times in recent months, perhaps from a slightly different perspective. I compared RTE's coverage of the primaries with its lack of coverage of an election in which the Irish people will have a say in a few weeks' time, the Lisbon treaty referendum. I am still bemused at our fixation with the US presidential elections. I saw a figure last week for the cost to the national broadcaster and to the taxpayer of the Super Tuesday coverage. The coverage, if one went through it in great detail, was far from super and was perhaps a little superficial. Every time I hear a broadcast on the US elections or read a review it strikes me that we are absolutely fixated on one candidate. That was the case until last Tuesday, when the results of the most recent primary election seemed to put paid to the campaign of that particular challenger. On Wednesday's radio and television there were almost no reports of Tuesday's results. We will soon be moving on to coverage of the real presidential election in November, which will be contested by two candidates neither of whom appears to be favoured by our national broadcaster, and perhaps the coverage will be a little less excited and a little more balanced.

Rather than making up this as I go along, I will say that I am taking note of some of the interesting aspects of the Bill. Section 114 covers the principal objects and associated powers of RTE. I note here with interest a provision which is relevant to a point made earlier by Senator Ó Murchú. Subsection (2) states that RTE shall "uphold the democratic values enshrined in the Constitution, especially those relating to rightful liberty of expression". This issue has been raised here a number of times in the past few years in the context of advertising for religious papers or with a religious message, which we were told was not appropriate. I hope that under this section the issue of advertising of religious newspapers and so on, which we were not able to address previously, will come in for more positive consideration.

On the question of advertising, I support the points made by a few of my colleagues concerning the advertising of alcohol. There can be no doubt that there is currently a national alcohol crisis. A culture of drinking surrounds almost every event not just to an unnecessary degree but to an almost dangerous degree. Our fixation with drink is now becoming a serious national problem which requires attention. This has been addressed here previously by the Minister for Health and Children and various other Government spokespersons. Advertising is a powerful vehicle for sales and marketing and for influencing people's mindsets. Therefore, alcohol advertising is something about which we should be extremely concerned. I hope that under this Bill we will be able to give serious consideration to the advertising of alcohol and restrict it to the maximum possible degree. Our culture of obsession with alcohol is one that needs urgent attention.

I am pleased that this interesting Bill is before Seanad Éireann at the commencement of its passage through the Houses. I hope that sufficient time will be allowed on Committee Stage for us to go through the sections, maybe not line by line but in some detail. I welcome the legislation.

I had hoped to have a chance to talk about local and independent radio, an area in which significant progress has been made. We would like to see more of this. I was critical of RTE in some small ways but overall, as a national broadcaster, it has been a very positive institution which has transformed lives and given people an opportunity to see and hear the world. RTE must be congratulated on this. Now, in the new Ireland and in a new century, we have to respond to new challenges. I hope the Broadcasting Bill will assist us in this regard.