Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, back to the House and I wish to respond to the points he made. I intend to state, as succinctly as possible, that under section 114 of the Bill, there is a commitment, as far as practicable, to the whole community on the island of Ireland. The object of RTE is to establish, maintain and operate a national television and sound broadcasting service, which should be made available "in so far as it is reasonably practicable, to the whole community on the island of Ireland". I stress this point because the Minister of State and his officials are receiving briefings in which they are being told one cannot broadcast outside the jurisdiction. While that may be the case, I am reading from the Bill under discussion at present. Members are considering legislation that requires RTE to broadcast to the whole community on the island of Ireland. I make this point because in addition to Great Britain, I also refer to Northern Ireland and to northern County Donegal, which has great difficulties in this regard.

I doubly stress that under this legislation, this requirement pertains to the whole community on the island of Ireland. It does not refer to the State or to this jurisdiction, but to the island of Ireland. Someone should remind RTE of this when it claims it has no authority. I do not care what authority one has, because this is the requirement under the legislation. The broadcasters in Algeria know how to deal with it.

In addition, according to section 114(1)(f) of the Bill, another object is:

to establish, maintain and operate a television broadcasting service and a sound broadcasting service which shall ... be made available, in so far as RTÉ considers reasonably practicable, to Irish communities outside the island of Ireland.

These are the requirements and, as the Minister of State is aware, this is a considered position. It would be reasonably practicable for RTE to increase its output to 500 kW from the Summerhill transmitter, at a cost €100,000 per year. That would be the cost, if this issue pertains to money. Perhaps it is about something else. I feel so strongly about this matter because one should insist that RTE do this. Obviously, its definition of "practicable" differs from mine. Moreover, in so far as I have discussed this with other Members of the Oireachtas, it also differs from what they would consider to be practicable.

Another issue to which I wish to advert in this respect is that RTE continues to state it has not reduced its broadcasting output from the Summerhill mast. It is true that it has not reduced its output since it took back the mast from Radio Tara. However, Radio Tara was broadcasting at twice the output. RTE has indicated clearly and proven that the twin 250 kW broadcasting transmitter being used by Radio Tara was not of the best quality. I agree with it in this respect. However, I disagree with its decision to replace it with a 250 kW transmitter. I disagree with its position that, because it would cost €100,000 per year to extend its present range, it is

As an aside, since this debate was adjourned at 5 p.m., my office has received three calls from different emigrant groups, two in the United Kingdom and another in Ireland, who were listening to the debate on the webcast and who rang to thank me for my comments on their behalf. I do not know who these people are. I simply make the point that it is interesting because RTE is trying to state that on a number of occasions when the service was unavailable and was not being broadcast, no one noticed the difference. Can one imagine that people are listening to this debate? I certainly did not alert them to it and have never spoken to those groups previously. I am aware that GAA groups have a keen interest in this subject.

This constitutes real politics. Those who live in the dosshouses of north London or who lack a pension in other parts of the United Kingdom do not carry great political clout. The people who wish to listen to "Céilí House" or to Donncha O'Dulaing on a Saturday night are not the most important people in the world. Moreover, the GAA community in Britain, who no longer can vote in Ireland, can be disregarded easily. Thankfully, Irish politicians have never taken that line. Across all parties, they have been prepared to speak for and defend such people. It is in this regard that an issue of great significance has arisen. It also is tied into the legislation and RTE's requirements to broadcast beyond the island of Ireland and throughout the entire island of Ireland. Clearly, neither point of view has permeated into the deeper recesses of RTE, which continues to raise the issue of jurisdiction. However, this legislation does not refer to jurisdiction. It refers to the island of Ireland and to the Irish community living outside the island of Ireland. Therefore, there are requirements and responsibilities that go with that. They will not go away lightly and Members will insist that they be noted and acted on.

In this regard, while I accept the Minister of State's good offices on the matter and he should not take this personally, I disagree with his point that such issues should not be included in legislation. This is the only way one can at least interpret what would be reasonably practicable. Obviously, my view differs from that which obtains in RTE. Therefore, I must insist that Members take this as far as possible. I have put on record issues in this regard and the Minister of State has stated he would investigate them further. He should ask his officials to get to the bottom of this information in order that Members are in possession of all the relevant information and have a basis on which to make a decision. At present, the only decision I want is to have a transmitter broadcasting at 500 kW from Summerhill on the long wave. I want that running at 500kW for 24 hours a day. I want us then to negotiate an increase in the 500kW allowed under the 1975 agreement, from which we get our licence to do this.

The terms of the Good Friday Agreement provide for shadow legislation in both jurisdictions, so it would be useful to enter into an agreement with the BBC to have a single broadcasting unit across the two islands. People from both islands could receive all output from both stations. That would certainly be in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.