Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I move amendment No. 99:

In page 121, line 25, after "licence" to insert the following:

"and at all times practicable that RTÉ use the maximum power levels as sanctioned by the ITU and licensed by ComReg in the case of an LF broadcast transmitter serving the island of Ireland and or Irish communities abroad".

This amendment concerns the issue of long-wave broadcasting, which is of concern to people who speak for immigrant groups in parts of the United Kingdom and even in northern Europe. It has to do with people who are involved in the GAA in particular who wish to listen to sports broadcasts on a Sunday evening in different parts of the UK. It has to do with parts of Ireland such as northern Donegal and other areas where the reception is very weak. It has to do also with changing over from medium wave to long wave.

The Minister should be aware that for many years I have been interested in the issue of the availability of Irish broadcasts in different parts of the world, particularly Europe. My view is that arising out of the Good Friday Agreement, long wave BBC Radio 4 should be broadcast through our Summerhill facility and that RTE long wave should be broadcast from one of the BBC transmitters outside Belfast and outside London to get the sense of the agreement. Nonetheless, people in the Minister's Department remain of the view that despite what is contained in the Good Friday Agreement we should not have any great interest in the capacity of people outside Ireland to pick up RTE in other jurisdictions. We need to nail that lie.

The position is that from the foundation of the State we have always had a short wave, long wave, medium wave and FM service. We now have the new digital and other satellite broadcasts coming through, although satellite is also digital in another form. Issues arise in that regard which I cannot get to the bottom of. We have a licence to broadcast at 50 kilowatts during the daytime but we broadcast at far less than that. I will come to that shortly.

The issue is that we are not using our capacity. For instance, we have the Atlantic 252 long wave service but it is being interfered with every night by Radio Algérienne. Radio Algérienne is broadcasting at about eight times the power of RTE on the long wave station. They are all dealt with under the same international agreement reached in 1975.

I have two letters from the RTE Authority, one of which was written in 2002 and the other in 2008. One of the letters purports to tell me that long wave is not received well in London while the other purports to tell me that long wave is received far better than medium wave in London. Those letters are from the same office in RTE. I am not happy with that.

I realise elements of what I am saying may not come within the competence of the Minister's Ministry but how will the Minister respond to the problem? We are allowed to broadcast at 62.5 kilowatts from 6.30 in the evening until 6.30 in the morning. I cannot find out the reason that is the case. It was not the case when Atlantic 252 was leant by us to Radio Tara when it was broadcasting pop music, and it was well received.

We are broadcasting at well below our power but at the same time there are Irish emigrants in parts of London, north London in particular, who cannot receive it. I know from personal experience that is correct. There was a time I could receive RTE long wave on my car radio in most parts of the UK, particularly near Edinburgh and areas near London, but that is no longer the case. I tried to receive RTE in north London recently but could barely hear it. That is a real difficulty being experienced.

In terms of the night time operation, going back to what my old physics teacher taught me in Dingle years ago, long waves do not travel as well at night whereas medium waves, the shorter wave lengths, travel further at night. That is the reason some people of my age — fewer and fewer as I look around me — would remember Radio Luxembourg broadcasting to Ireland from Luxembourg in the 1960s and the 1970s.