Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Senator Bacik kindly responded to my request for a debate on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland report last week and I am grateful to her for that. I understand it is the intention of the Government to facilitate debate in the Seanad on the report and I ask that we have that debate sooner rather than later. Significant attention has been paid to what was said and done at the Oireachtas committee yesterday. I am concerned that the debate on standards in our national broadcaster does not descend to a knockabout type of situation where everybody feels free to let rip on their own issues. What we need is a thorough, analytical debate that concentrates on the key issues and the Seanad could contribute to that. Therefore, we should have the debate in the Seanad on the issue sooner rather than later.

One of the issues I did not raise last week but which continues to trouble me concerns the way in which, at a time of crisis, a consensus seems to emerge that the only thing that can cure a problem is a resignation. I feel strongly that resignation is something that is appropriate in certain situations, particularly when there is a current danger that needs to be addressed. However, I am concerned that there does not seem to be a clear mechanism whereby people in institutions who get things wrong, as happened in the case of RTÉ with the Prime Time documentary, can step back from their position, go through a period of reflection and reform if necessary. Then, it would be seen that people can recover and take up a position of eminence or prominence again. That is a more humane way to deal with human error.

The other side of the issue is that people must be willing to take responsibility for what they have done. As far as I know, it is only the journalist who resigned from RTÉ who has given a personal apology for her role in the affair. I am not aware that any of the other people involved, for example Mr. O'Shea, Mr. Páircéir and Mr. Mulhall - I am open to correction - have expressed personal regret at their part in the serious defamation of Kevin Reynolds. I wonder what that says about them and about the organisation. We need to consider how we deal with crises when they emerge, but we also need to focus on a culture of rehabilitating people. We talk about that in the context of criminal justice, but we should also talk about it in the context of institutional mistakes. This involves taking responsibility, but also providing a mechanism for people to learn, recover and reform.

I welcome the commitment of the Minister of State, Deputy Róisín Shortall, to end the sponsorship of sports events by alcohol companies and organisations. This is something for which I have called over many years in the Seanad. People are rightly concerned about the impact of a nanny state, but when it comes to the abuse of alcohol, particularly by young people, and when it comes to the bad example being set in homes and public fora, it is an area where we cannot be too vigilant. Therefore, not only should we be moving to end alcohol sponsorship of sports, we should also be looking at the extent to which we permit public advertising of alcohol at all, particularly on broadcast media. I would welcome a debate on that issue also.