Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I should have known there was no danger of me quoting from a poem without Senator Norris responding at will with another quotation.

As I indicated in our discussion on a heritage channel, I have a sense that in the area of broadcasting older people are taken for granted as civic minded participants in society and their specific needs are easily overlooked. Perhaps this is connected to the fact that age activism, which I support, is relatively new. It behoves us, as legislators, to consider whose interests we are trying to serve and whose needs we are trying to meet with this legislation.

For these reasons, I propose, in amendment No. 22, to insert after section 39(1)(c) the words: "in the case of sound broadcasting a minimum of not less than 10 per cent of the broadcasting time is devoted to the broadcasting of programmes at people over 65 years,". In amendment No. 82 I propose to insert in section 66 a subsection to the effect that in "considering the suitability of any applicant for the award of a broadcasting contract to provide a broadcasting service in respect of an area in which more than 10 per cent of the population is over 65, the Contract Awards Committee shall have particular regard to the needs of this population in relation to programming content." The same spirit inhabits both amendments.

Amendment No. 90 provides for the insertion in section 101 of words to the effect that the nature and number of hours of television programming aimed at people over 65 years should be specified. The point of these amendments is to increase programming content and encourage commercial channels to provide programming for the elderly in the same way as the Bill promotes Irish language and other programming. The amendments would also require the public service broadcasting charter to take account of the programming needs of older people, as it does in the case of the needs of children.

Section 39 deals with the duties of broadcasters, section 66 relates to the awarding of contracts and section 101 concerns the public service broadcasting charter. Taken together, the amendments would guarantee that a minimum level of broadcasting services aimed at people aged over 65 years would be provided and this would be facilitated accordingly in the management of commercial channels and charter.