That is what happened. That is the reality. If that is what the Dáil debate was all about, that is quite legitimate. RTE fought against that Bill and said they could not take on the competition. RTE are quite capable of taking on competition.
I wrote to Mr. Peter Cassells, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, who raised the point that was raised by Senator Kiely, in relation to RTE's commercial enterprise and the potential income from RTE's commercial enterprise. In a letter to him I said:
I wish to stress that it was never intended or proposed that income from RTE's commercial enterprise unit would be taken into account in determining the limit on advertising revenue being set in the Bill. The establishment of this unit was a decision of which I was fully supportive and I would be keen to see it develop and expand so as to maximise revenue from both existing and new activities.
This is an area which has been recognised only recently by RTE. The potential they have for selling their own excellent programmes — as BBC have done through their enterprise unit and as the ITV network do as well — is vast. They should put their resources into that area now.
The question of gifts was raised by Senator Cassidy and referred to by Senator O'Toole. I have no objection whatsoever to the idea of giving away a car, or a holiday — it is good for programming — but what I do object to, and I have said this already, is the presenter standing beside a car as if it was in a showroom with flashing lights and the theme music which goes with its normal advertising, and it is promoted by the presenter in a way that can be misleading by linking his name while agreeing to every word of the promotional blurb of the producing or manufacturing company. That is wrong. RTE in their voluntary code of practice agree that it is wrong, but it happens regularly. It is something that should be looked at in the context of a mandatory code of practice. It is in the voluntary code of practice but it is honoured more in the breach than in the observance.
Senator O'Toole made a passing reference to the Carroll's Irish Open, the Whitbread Around the World race, or other events, but obviously, that does not count as advertising. That is part of the event and will not count as revenue. As far as advertising is concerned it does count because advertising has to create a revenue, otherwise it is not advertising.
As far as the cross advertising of services is concerned it is totally proper and acceptable that a radio or television service should give information on announcements about upcoming programmes and there is no way such announcements would have been perceived as advertisements per se. To the extent that the issue has been raised, it will be a simple matter to make this clear in a code of practice relating to advertising. That is the situation.