Vol. 419 No. 10
4 Mr. Currie asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications whether she has requested the Independent Radio and Television Commission to examine the Broadcasting Act, 1990, with a view to possible changes; if so, whether she has received any recommendations from the Commission; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
8 Mr. McCartan asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications if she has received any submission from the Independent Radio and Television Commission regarding proposals for the restructuring of Irish broadcasting; if she will outline the main points of any such submission; if she will outline her attitude to it; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 8 together.
In the course of my recent meeting with the Independent Radio and Television Commission I suggested that it would be useful in the context of my review of broadcasting, to which I have referred in the House in response to previous questions, to have the commission's thinking regarding the future direction that broadcasting policy might take.
I have not yet received any submission from the commission.
Are the Independent Radio and Television Commission qualified to make recommendations to the Minister in view of the fact that there is a possible vested interest? It has been suggested in the past that it could be the disburser of licence fees and that there is a possible vested interest in relation to the future of a third television channel. Also, there has been a long-running saga in that connection, including a court case, and there may be bias in relation to the Independent Radio and Television Commission that the Minister ought to bear in mind. In view of the urgency of decisions in relation to this matter, has the Minister given a timescale to the Independent Radio and Television Commission for making the case to her?
In the context of my review of broadcasting, I have been meeting all the different groups involved in broadcasting. In that context I would think that the Independent Radio and Television Commission would have a viewpoint that they would like to put across and would also suggest that all of the different groups I have met have a vested interest in their own particular area of responsibility or interest. That should not rule out presenting proposals to me. It is on that basis that I asked the Independent Radio and Television Commission, following a recent meeting with them, to put their proposals to me, in the same way as I will be asking RTE, the national station, when I meet them in a couple of weeks' time to do the same thing.
I have indicated to all of the groups I will be meeting that I want to have these discussions finished and their proposals before me very shortly, that is, within a matter of weeks. I am anxious that my review of broadcasting and whatever amendments I might propose would be brought to Government fairly quickly and that when we come back in the autumn it would be possible for me to have amending legislation here for discussion in the House.
I thank the Minister for giving us some sort of timescale. She did say within a matter of weeks and I hope that means what I think it means, because I would suggest that the Minister is getting a reputation for having more long fingers than a cat has lives——
Shannon.
——and she is beginning to run out of some of them in relation to broadcasting, An Post and on the Shannon issue. Does the Minister recognise the urgency, particularly in relation to the loss of revenue from advertising, the loss of jobs and the indecision in all sectors of the advertising media and all sectors of the media industry? I assume the Minister is aware that RTE is £8 million over the cap. What will happen to that money? What is the position in relation to the proposals for local radio, for national newspapers and local newspapers which are worried about their future and about lack of jobs? In particular, what is the position of small and middle sized businesses who cannot now advertise on RTE because the cost of advertising on RTE is too high for them and they are therefore going outside the State to advertise on UTV and even on Sky? Would the Minister agree——
The Deputy's questioning is over-long.
It is an over-long subject that has been going on for an over-long time.
We cannot afford that luxury at this time.
Would the Minister agree that there is that element of urgency in reaching decisions on this and other matters?
I would, and that is why I have set out on the trail of talking to all of the people who are very anxious to talk to me and make their points of view known. I accept that the capping and the difficulties in relation to minutage on RTE advertising has created massive frustration not just on the national station but with advertisers, with small and medium size enterprises who, as the Deputy rightly says, cannot afford the level of advertising charges now being asked by RTE and are bringing their business elsewhere. I am concerned about that. It would have been very simple for me to bring in a one-line Bill of amendment to the 1991 Act which would simply lift the capping and change the minutage. I thought, however, and I think the Deputy would agree, that there are more fundamental changes that need to be made in relation to broadcasting and that is why I embarked on the basis that I did. I hope that in the autumn session we will have an amendment to the 1990 Act here.
We need the repeal of the Act.
I hope that, with the support of the Deputy and his party and that of the other parties in the House, we will get that through the House very quickly.
Do I detect already a slippage on time? The reference earlier on was "within a matter of weeks". We are now talking about the autumn session. Can the Minister tell us that she will act on these matters urgently or is this indecision, this timidity, this procrastination to continue——
The Minister for procrastination.
The Minister is now known as "Minister Máire procrastination".
I would remind Deputy Currie that the question he asked was if I had put a time limit on the Independent Radio and Television Commission within which it must make its submission to me and the answer to that question was that I hoped to have all of the discussions, including the submissions, within a matter of weeks. I went on to say in that same supplementary that I hoped then to be able to present proposals to the Government very shortly and that in the autumn session I would have an amendment to the 1990 Act.
If the Minister is only going to amend the Act, what is the difficulty? If it is not going to be fundamentally changed, what is the need for delay?
I cannot call the Deputy, as he is no doubt aware. We are dealing with Priority Questions and the Standing Orders ordain that only the Deputy who tabled a question can ask a supplementary. We must now proceed to other questions.
