I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for selecting this important matter. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Joe McHugh, to discuss it.
I take my appointment as Ireland’s first emigrant Senator seriously. That mandate extends not only to the diaspora in the United States, with whom I am more familiar, but also to the diaspora across the globe. One issue which comes up time and again with elderly members of the diaspora in the United Kingdom is continued access to RTE's long wave radio service which is set to be abolished at some point in 2017. There may be many young or more digitally orientated people in RTE management who may scoff at the notion of retaining for what for them may be a feature of bygone era. However, this narrow thinking does not understand the richness RTE provides for the tens of thousands of listeners in the United Kingdom who tune into its long wave service every single day.
There are more than 600,000 Irish-born emigrants living in the United Kingdom. Many of their older members were forced out of Ireland in the 1950s with little education and no prospects of finding work at home. In January 2016 the Social Policy Research Centre at Middlesex University in London, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, conducted a study of emigrants’ usage of RTE's long wave service. Up to 92% of respondents stated they listened to it every day or most days, with 44% listening to it in the car or another vehicle. Less than half of the respondents had used a television or some digital device to access the radio service. Unsurprisingly, it was the so-called older age groups who did not access the service on digital radio platforms on a laptop or digital TV. Will the Minister of State consider the findings of the survey, given that it was funded by the previous Government, and implore RTE management to reconsider this ageist and discriminatory cutting of RTE's long wave service planned for 2017? Nobody is trying to halt the digitalisation of the media or impede RTE in its process of modernisation. However, it must be reminded of its public service remit.
The historic first state visit of Uachtarán na hÉireann to the United Kingdom in 2014 was an incredible moment for the Irish community living in the United Kingdom, particularly its elderly members who had been through difficult times for the Irish during the Troubles.
Anyone who watched the concerts and events held to mark the President's visit could see that they reconnected many Irish men and women from humble economic and social backgrounds in a way that had not been done for many generations. It was an extremely proud moment, not just for these immigrants but also for the diaspora throughout the world. It showed that the nation was wider than its borders. I ask the Minister of State what message is sent to the people concerned when three years later the switch is turned off on RTE's long wave radio service which is the daily and perhaps only link for so many with home. Thankfully, we have exited the period of austerity. It seems to be an extremely harsh and unfair decision for RTE to directly target some of the most elderly and vulnerable people who use its services. This is not what public service broadcasting is supposed to be about.