Many matters have been raised. Members queried the timing of Oireachtas Report, which has been raised on many occasions. I admit that I am one of the drunks or insomniacs who watch the programme but there is no denying the fact that it is late. There are several reasons and Mr. Conway will talk about the compilation of the programme. Those seeking editorial control of the programme can ask Mr. Conway about that too. I am not passing the buck on this matter and will take my responsibilities.
Realistically, the programme would not normally be ready until 10 p.m. if it was to reflect the proceedings of the day in parliament. It is also competing with other material. RTE takes its responsibilities to the political process seriously and I am glad that some Deputies and Senators have acknowledged that. We have always regarded it as an important part of our remit to cover politics seriously, comprehensively and in a number of ways and I hope we have improved our coverage over the years to address some of the matters that have been mentioned. However, Oireachtas Report is not the only thing we broadcast. What may seem a simple decision to cover an event, such as a press conference at Hillsborough related to the Northern peace process, requires a telephone call from me to the schedulers, who will say "Yes", "No" or "Maybe". The answer is, in fairness, usually "Yes" but it involves displacing another programme and that causes grief to people not interested in politics. We receive complaints if we do not cover such events but equally receive them if we do.
While such instances involve disruption of the schedule, members are talking about reorganising the schedule to take more account of politics. I would argue that RTE covers the important events in the political process through our main news bulletins. We have two main news bulletins in prime time and our current affairs coverage is also in prime time so there is a reasonable outing for politics in main news bulletins. We do a specialist programme at the weekends, with which I am sure members are familiar, such as "The Week in Politics". We can deal with "Oireachtas Report" in more detail in a moment. There are other programmes such as on Leaders' Questions, for example, which is an innovation dating back six or seven years. That was introduced at the time of the generous licence fee increase. It was one of the things we committed ourselves to doing at that time. It works; it is good television.
I understand members are interested in following up on that. To be honest, we have had problems even with the scheduling of Leaders' Questions, and that is a relatively predictable event. In its initial phase it overran consistently by quite an amount. Everyone agreed that there would be a set duration for Leaders' Questions; that it would start at a certain time and there would be a set amount of time per party leader and per response from the Taoiseach, but it overran by a great deal most days so we extended the programme. Then the Taoiseach changed and the length of sentences changed. We also lost the Technical Group so the programme became shorter again. That causes much grief in the scheduling process. That is just one example. I am just pointing out that it is not always a straightforward matter.
I have sympathy for Deputy White's aspiration to have Oireachtas Report on at six o'clock but I do not think that will happen in terms of competition with other possibilities. "Six One" news will cover politics at that time. Long may it remain there. I am happy as long as I have a "Six One" news in the schedule. As for the timing of "Oireachtas Report", it has never been satisfactory. It does pull in a reasonable audience. The last time I checked 65,000 or 70,000 people were watching it which I did not regard as bad at 11.55 p.m. or thereabouts. We offer it on our player, which gives the opportunity for watching it later.
I checked with our on-line people before the meeting and inquired how long it takes to turnaround Leaders' Questions, for example, to put it on the web. The answer is about an hour. I accept "Oireachtas Report" is on late at night so one might have to wait until the following morning, but it is available for playback and it has its place in the schedule. It would be unrealistic of me to promise that it will be on significantly earlier than where it is. "Desperate Housewives" has a bigger audience and that will probably always be the case.
I am not forgetting the other issues raised. Mr. Conway will go through some of the issues that determine the editorial policies dictating the content of "Oireachtas Report".