David Norris (Independent)

The Minister stated advertisements would be loaded into a prime slot and there would be overloading, which is extremely irritating, particularly on television. I agree some of the advertisements are very professional. I am not totally opposed to advertising and advertisements are absolutely necessary, particularly in the independent sector, which is not served by the television licence. However, our contributions have centred on radio, not television, but the examples given by the Minister all related to television. Not all broadcasters are as professional as Gay Byrne, with whom I had the pleasure of working from time to time. He had a genius for bringing an item to a close exactly on the button of the commencement of an advertisement. Some people go over during live feeds and so on.

The Minister's argument about the relative value of the different slots, although initially attractive, is not at all persuasive. The amendments refer to adjacent hour slots. We did not refer to a ban on advertising during peak times in the morning and evening and all advertising to be slotted in at 3 a.m. for an hour. If, for example, advertisements could interrupt a programme in mid-flight to fulfil the hourly quota, they should be aired in the following hour at the end of the interview, which might cause a dislocation in the time loading.

The Minister referred to sensitivity and he treated this subject from an aesthetic point of view. A number of programmes, especially on talk radio, deal with serious subjects and it would not be appropriate to interrupt them with advertisements. For example, I will treat the Minister to a little Vermeer scene on North Great George's Street. A few Saturdays ago I was washing my breakfast vessels late in the morning and I was riveted to an interview between Marian Finucane and the late Nuala O'Faolain. A series of advertisement slots would not have been appropriate during that interview and none was used. Extremely jarring material could have interrupted an extraordinary powerful radio broadcast. In those circumstances, it would be appropriate to examine not only the one-hour slot but the two-hour slots and average them out. The difference in audience participation between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 12 noon is not substantial enough to back up the Minister's case that there would be a loading of advertisements from one hour to the next, which would cause a distortion, for grossly commercial reasons. That is not the intention.

I was interested in the response of those who briefed me. They were horrified and they said they did not want more advertising, as it deters listeners. My colleague and friend, Senator O'Reilly, will not press the amendment but that gives the Minister an opportunity to consider the arguments made and perhaps review his position.