Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As Senators will be aware, an coimisiún will be responsible for issuing permanent and temporary sound broadcasting contracts following enactment of the Bill and dissolution of the BAI. The amendment requires an coimisiún to receive the approval of an Oireachtas joint committee before authorising a derogation from the requirement that a sound broadcasting service shall devote not less than 20% of the broadcasting time on the service to news and current affairs programmes. Granting such derogations is a matter that should be left to the commission to undertake as an independent regulatory authority and I, therefore, cannot accept the amendment. The BAI currently grants such derogations.I remind Senators that licences are for a finite period. It is a key principle that an coimisiún should be able to make regulatory decisions free from external interference, particularly from political bodies, as is required by the audiovisual media services directive. Requiring specific approval, as the Senator referred to in her question on the political side, by an Oireachtas committee may represent undue interference in the regulatory independence of an coimisiún, which would be likely to approve a number of temporary sound broadcasting contracts throughout the year, such as that for Christmas FM. There is also the practical consideration that Oireachtas committees fall on the dissolution of the Dáil and would therefore not be available to approve a derogation at certain stages. Consider how long it took the past two Governments to form. The committees were gone for some time. That could be an issue.