Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Only I do not know what would happen to Ciarán Mullooly's job if RTE were relocated to Athlone. We need to be conscious of that.

Senator Norris also spoke about the universal licence, which Senator McDowell spoke about in the context of the property tax. I had to smile when Senator McDowell made that point. On the one hand, he wants TV broadcasting to be funded through a general property tax across every property across the country yet, on the other, he does not want the TV licence to be applied universally across the country on every property. The example given was a person who has a house in Coolock and a caravan in the country. I do not know what the position is if one has a house in Dublin and another on the banks of Kilglass Lough, but we can have that debate on another occasion.

I wish to touch on a few other things. Senator Norris raised the important issue of the use of Longwave 252 to keep in touch with people abroad. This comes back to the issue of local radio stations. On the weekend Clann na nGael played Kilmore, and when club games take place right across the country, we have listeners as far as Timbuktu now because of the Irish radio player and the use of new technology. It is not just that the Irish in the UK can access what RTE broadcasts in Ireland; now, right across the globe, people in Argentina can find out what is happening in the intermediate club championship in Galway or any other part of the country. This is what technology allows us to do.

Senator John O'Mahony spoke earlier about not being mimicked by Oliver Callan. I know Senator O'Mahony is involved again with the Leitrim team. Perhaps if he were to pull off the coup he pulled off in 1994 he might get a little coverage from Oliver Callan.

A number of other issues were raised. Senator Terry Leyden and a few others spoke about the sale of the RTE lands. The funds coming out of the sale of the RTE lands are for capital investment in the organisation, upgrading the organisation to deal with the challenges of the digital era.

An amnesty on taking out a TV licence is effectively already in place. When people buy TV licences, they are not asked if they previously had one, and no record of that is kept, so I encourage people to purchase their TV licences. Why is An Post seeking that the collection of TV licence fees be put out to tender? It is doing so because the current regime does not suit the current An Post organisation and configuration. It is quite willing to tender for the licence fee collection. There have been, I think, seven or eight expressions of interest to date.

Senator Lombard is correct that there is a need for a new funding model to be put in place. I have accepted that. About one in eight homes has declared not to have a TV. The Senator is right in that we are rolling out broadband at a rate of one house every minute of every working day, and we will continue this for the next 84 weeks. I hope that momentum will be continued beyond that. The majority of those properties are getting 1,000 Mbps, which allows people to watch up to 200 high-definition Netflix channels at the one time without a reduction in the quality of service being provided. This does change the whole dynamic. There is the issue that people say they do not have a television but they use public service content, whether it be the RTE player or the TV3 player, and use technology that way. That is the challenge we have, and how we address it in the longer term is something we need to deal with.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh talked about TG4 and the number of awards it has won. It is an exceptional channel. Like Senator Warfield, of all the channels I watch, I watch more TG4 than any other channel purely because of the sport and the documentaries it shows as I have a personal interest in many of those. The kind of programming it provides is something an Irish audience appreciates. It would be lovely to be in the position of being able to approve multi-annual funding for the channel, but I must get the funding to allow that to happen.

The new head of Raidió na Gaeltachta is a matter for the board of RTE and does not come under my remit. Senator Ó Clochartaigh raised the point about transmission from abroad. This is one of the issues being examined by the committee. That dynamic is changing now particularly with Brexit because it is not just a matter of broadcasting from abroad; broadcasters will now potentially be broadcasting from outside of the European Union. This is part of a wider debate my colleagues are discussing at European level.

Senator Dolan raised the issue of the visually impaired and hearing-impaired. As an aside to that, one of the decisions I have made as Minister is to waive the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland levy for community radio stations. We have a unique system of community radio stations here. I do not think there is such a system anywhere else on the globe. In fact, we have a far greater radio listenership than anywhere else on the globe. This is a unique Irish trait. Quite a lot of these community radio stations engage with people from marginalised sectors, including the disability sector, and many people from these sectors get opportunities to broadcast that they would never get only for the community radio sector.

The issue of targets and so on is covered under section 43 of the Broadcasting Act, and there are statutory access rules set by the Broadcasting Authority Ireland which set down the obligations on broadcasters. Section 43(6) of the Broadcasting Act provides for a biannual review of these access rules. This is where the input needs to be. I actively encourage the groups that have an interest to make submissions in this regard. I know they have done so in the past. Senator Dolan raises a valid question in asking why, if the capacity is there regarding content coming in from abroad, it cannot be utilised. Virgin has made significant investment in the TV3 studios, and this capacity, which may not have been there in the past, may now be available to that company. The Senator makes a valid point about the announcement of visual description and we will relay that back to the BAI.

Senator Ó Ríordáin raised the issue of all-male panels discussing political issues and so on. Much of the time this is because the political parties do not put forward female spokespersons. They are usually asked to do so.I would be concerned about the comments made regarding racism. Senator Humphreys raised the issue of the 30% condition on the sale but that is a matter for the planning process. As the Senator knows with regard to the Poolbeg site, it was the planning process that determined-----