John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 317: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to amend the Broadcasting Act 2009 to allow independent music driven stations more flexibility in relation to the minimum provision for news and current affairs. [25746/11]

John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 318: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the fact that independent music radio stations feel penalised by the Broadcasting Act 2009 in relation to the provision of current affairs and news content in view of the fact that the national broadcaster can divide the provision over a number of stations and therefore has an unfair advantage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25747/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 317 and 318 together.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Broadcasting Act 2009 places specific news and current affairs requirements on sound broadcasters. The Act requires all broadcasters to devote at least 20% of the broadcast day to news and current affairs programming. There are also additional requirements relating to the provision of such programming in peak time. The statutory News and Current Affairs requirements make an important contribution to the achievement of diversity and plurality for Irish audiences.

No amendment to the Broadcasting Act 2009 of the type suggested by the Deputy is required as the Act permits the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to agree to a derogation from these requirements, whereby the broadcaster can provide less news and current affairs content than that required by the Act. In doing so, the BAI must have regard to the interests of the audience. In light of the flexibility that this approach provides for the commercial broadcasters, I do not believe that the legislation puts them at any disadvantage in comparison to RTÉ in this regard. Finally the Deputy should be aware that the BAI recently published their draft Broadcasting Services Strategy (Consultation Document), which is available on the Authority's website www.bai.ie . This consultation document suggests a more nuanced approach to considering derogations should be adopted by the Authority. All interested parties were invited to submit views on the Broadcasting Services Strategy by the closing date of 23 September 2011. These views will be taken into consideration by the Authority.