Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I recently renewed my television licence. I did so with some reluctance. I do not think I am alone when I say it grates with me to hear RTE running free advertisements, not just to get us to pay for our television licence, which we are required to do by law, but at the same time telling us how great it is. What is more, it picks issues and events on which perhaps not all voters were agreed and tells us how great those events all were. A State-funded broadcaster funded by taxpayers' money and using those resources to advertise not just payment of the licence, but its own merits, is going too far.

While I have great respect for the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Denis Naughten, who will be a great Minister, I was disappointed recently to read him dismissing so lightly criticisms that there might be issues of fairness and balance or left-wing bias in RTE in particular. Therefore, I would like very much for the Minister to come to this House so we can share with him our different perspectives on the quality of public service broadcasting in this country and on issues that some of us believe need to change. It is time for amending legislation on broadcasting and to examine the types of advertising we allow on publicly accessible channels. We need to strengthen and indeed introduce sanctions where broadcasters, specifically tax-funded broadcasters, are found to have misused their position, been biased or lacked impartiality. There needs to be a mechanism under which they can not only be found to have acted inappropriately but issued with sanctions to ensure it does not happen again. That would be a healthy and helpful debate to have. I request that the Leader ask the Minister come to the House to discuss those issues with us.

Very briefly, on Brexit, it is too soon for people to draw certain conclusions about what will happen as a result of what the British people have decided to do, but one thing is very clear. There is an appalling lack of political leadership in the Western world, on all sides. We saw the British Commissioner immediately resign, instead of sticking to his post until such time as Britain does leave and doing his job. He is not even supposed to be representing British interests at the Commission; he is supposed to be acting in the interests of the entire community. We have seen a lack of leadership on both sides of the British referendum debate, and we have seen Mr. Juncker's comments about an amicable divorce - just appalling stuff. The only figure I saw in recent weeks come out with honour in this-----