Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I thank the Minister and sympathise with her. She has a broad brief and various responsibilities. She and her officials have been dealing quite a lot with questions around RTÉ over recent weeks, as our Oireachtas media committee has. My colleagues, Senators Carrigy and Warfield, are regular attendees at the committee and we do not tend to get as much attention on some of the other bigger picture issues around broadcasting as we have been getting, to which I will refer in a moment. We need to address it.

I welcome the debate Senator Mullen raised in his Bill. It is important and it feeds into that broader question. I note that in his earlier remarks he said RTÉ is D4, but from listening from some of the executive, you would think RTÉ is Dee Forbes. That is the response they have. In fairness, with regard to questioning of witnesses and certainly among my colleagues here, I think we have been respectful. The role of our committees has been to try to get to the bottom of what has been going on and a clear failure of corporate governance. I welcome the announcements the Minister made. I know from previous experience that she listens to what is said at the Oireachtas committees.

There is a timed amendment on this and we need to look at what is going to happen in 12 months’ time. It crucial at the end of this that we have excellent public sector broadcasting in Ireland in 12 months’ time, however that will be provided. The RTÉ that will emerge will be a very different RTÉ from that which has gone up to now. There will have to be accountability but there will be much more transparency. I think we will be looking at a very different model. In our committee, we have considered - it is something we may need to look at - moving towards the publisher broadcasting model. This continual conflict, if you like, between the income the broadcaster is dependent on from the licence fee as opposed to the commercial income is in many ways partly at the root of the current difficulties. However, it underpins some of the challenges more generally facing the broadcaster and particularly broadcasting in a digital era. It is my view we need to move towards that publisher broadcaster model. Therefore, the essential elements of what might be called good public sector broadcasting, such as news, current affairs, critical sports events, documentaries and things that may not otherwise be made in the commercial space, will be funded. The more commercial activity, if you like, such as the entertainment and so on, may be commissioned from the independent sector. We will then have a clearer divide in how the broadcaster operates. Channel 4 is a model but there are others around the world that could be considered.

The acting director general, Mr. Adrian Lynch, confirmed to me today at the Oireachtas media committee that they will be moving very quickly towards a register of interests for presenters at RTÉ and executives in much the same way we as politicians have to declare all of our interests. The idea of a presenter doing a programme about the car industry while they are in receipt of some form of support from a car company is simply unacceptable. I am glad the new director general made it clear that will happen.

We need to address the question later on in the year in respect of where we are going on this because of a concern I have that will impact on the workers out there, which is the financial position of RTÉ. Many people are now refusing to pay their licence fee and they do not have confidence. We can debate the rights and wrongs of that but, clearly, income from that source will go down. In addition, on foot of what is going on at the moment, sources of advertising and commercial income will go down. I have no doubt RTÉ will be coming to the Government, presenting a difficult financial situation. I am not saying that I necessarily have all the answers on that but we will have to make a decision as a society as to the kinds of public sector broadcasting we want and how we will fund it. I had hoped we might be having a debate now on the report of the expert working group on the TV licence, which has fed into some informed debates in this Chamber and the Oireachtas committee, but unfortunately that will not happen.

It is critical that when there are certain negative voices out there – I know the Minister has been doing this – we talk about the importance of quality public sector broadcasting. It is a key tenet of democracy. We are fortunate in this country that we have not seen some of the extreme polarisation in media we have seen in other jurisdictions and many of the challenges we now see in the online space. It is important. Truth matters. It is important we have evidence-based and well-researched journalism and we have information provided to us that is supported by quality professionals who are working. I know in RTÉ there are up to 1,800 people, both direct employees and contractors, who are doing this.

This is a useful Bill. When we get over the current hump, we need to have a real debate that is critical to our democracy on the future of public sector broadcasting.