Vol. 452 No. 1
17 Miss de Valera asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in view of the fact that the term of the RTE authority is due to expire, the criteria he will apply for the appointment of the incoming authority. [7362/95]
The term of office of the present members of the RTÉ Authority expires on 31 May 1995. The number of members of the authority shall be not less than seven and not more than nine. Section 7 of the Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Act, 1993, which will come into operation on 1 June 1995, requires that, where the members of the Authority number seven, not less than three shall be women and not less than three shall be men and where the members number eight or nine, not less than four shall be women and not less than four shall be men.
In accordance with the good practice of successive Governments, each member of the Authority will be selected on the basis of his or her personal capacity to discharge the duties of a member of the Authority in the public interest.
It has been the practice generally of Governments to appoint a member of the RTE staff to the Authority. I am of the view that the selection of this person should be made more democratic. To this end the Government has agreed with my proposal to request RTE to make the necessary arrangements for RTE staff to nominate two staff members, one man and one woman, of which one will be selected by the Government for appointment to the Authority. This process is now in train. I should stress that the RTE employee appointed to the Authority will be required to serve in his or her personal capacity in the public interest rather than in a representative capacity.
