Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have raised in the House before a number of anomalies that exist around broadcasting issues across the island. While the issue is multifaceted and appears quite complex on the surface, when you actually delve into it with a view to resolving it, it is quite easily done, between technology and a will, if it is there. I will elaborate slightly. I raised the issue a number of times in the last Seanad, but this is the first opportunity I have had to raise it in this one. I refer, for example, to the current bar on audiences from the North entering competitions on RTÉ. RTÉ will cite legislation in the North that prohibits it from allowing entrants from the Six Counties into what it deems premium level competitions. I have referred before to the very strange situation where RTÉ was advertising a competition when counties Tyrone and Dublin were in the all-Ireland final to win all-Ireland tickets, get a limousine ride to Croke Park and have a stay in a hotel, yet viewers in County Tyrone could not enter the competition. It is crazy and it is something that really frustrates people. It very much happened out of the blue. RTÉ has said that it came about as result of a review that it conducted. I met with the Minister for Communities in the North. Her officials told me they did not interpret the legislation as putting any bar on people in the North from entering competitions in the South. This seems to have been a unilateral decision, and one that does not really make sense. In today's Irish News, the Minister for Communities, Deirdre Hargey, stated again that her interpretation is that the bar should not be in place. That is not her officials' advice to her.

Outside of the issue of passports, the one that probably mobilises the most engagement with me on social media is the geoblocking of certain sporting events via satellite providers, including GAA games. The GAA is an all-Ireland institution; it is the same with the IRFU. However, there is this mad situation where broadcasting rights are differentiated and sold on that basis. We also have to encourage the sporting organisations which operate across the entirety of the island to ensure that when they are selling rights to broadcast their games to organisations, such as Sky and Virgin, the island is treated as one entity, so that audiences will not be blocked from watching those important games. It happened during the Olympics and during big GAA championship matches. Perhaps located within the context of the shared island work, we could have an update from the relevant Department and Minister on the matter. That would give me and others an opportunity to delve deeper into the issue. Perhaps the Leader could consider organising that after the break.