Vol. 424 No. 6
76 Mr. Currie asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications the up-to-date position on the implementation of Council Directive 89/552/EEC by RTE which made it compulsory that television stations devote 10 per cent of transmission time to independently produced programmes and 50 per cent of transmission time to European produced programmes; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
As the Deputy is aware from previous responses, the provisions of Council Directive 89/552, which came into effect on 3 October 1991, relating to independently produced programmes and programmes of European origin have been implemented by Statutory Instrument 251 of 1991, made on 27 September 1991 and entitled the European Communities (Television Broadcasting) Regulations, 1991. It is a matter for the RTE Authority to comply with these regulations.
RTE have, very recently, supplied my Department with figures relating to the transmission of independent productions for 1990 and 1991. RTE estimate that 10.05 per cent and 9.7 per cent of transmission time in each year respectively was devoted to independent productions. Because broadcasters are still putting in place the necessary measures to fully account for programming source, in the context of preparing the biannual reports required by the Commission, these figures may err on the cautious side, as they may not take full account of independent productions bought from the BBC, ITV or Channel 4.
In both years, according to RTE, European Works accounted for 74 per cent of programme transmission time.
