Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

We had an interesting discussion on Committee Stage. When Senator O'Reilly raised amendment No. 17 on Committee Stage, proposing a change to the objectives, I expressed the view that this had already been sufficiently dealt with elsewhere. I do not want to accept this amendment, but I said then that we would look at how the Bill might be amended so that the issue of the quality of subtitling would be taken into account in the biennial reviews of the broadcasting access rules. It is in that regard that we are proposing amendment No. 41, which sets out that "the Authority shall consider the quality of services provided by broadcasters in endeavouring to comply with a broadcasting rule". I hope that delivers what we have been talking about. The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland would say that there is already consideration of the quality of subtitling in the assessment it does. However, it is appropriate for us to set out that quality requirement in legislation, and that is the intent of amendment No. 41, arising from Committee Stage.