De Valera's Bill mainly concerned with integration of digital television

The Broadcasting Bill, 1999, introduced by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, yesterday, fulfils what she said she would do about broadcasting last July and does nothing to advance or provide for quality assurance for Irish television viewers.

In fact, the Minister has simply accepted the invasion of the Irish airwaves and has not seriously addressed how indigenous Irish broadcasting might be supported or even described how RTE might be reformed to fulfil that mission.

The Bill is primarily burdened with the integration within broadcasting legislation of the digital regime and confirms accordingly the allocation of new and replacement digital channels to RTE, TnaG and TV3.

The Bill contains proposals for the following:

Definition of the public service mandate of RTE and TnaG;

The establishment of Digico, a digital terrestrial distributional entity in which RTE will have a 40 per cent share;

The separation out of the TV and radio transmission network held by RTE and for it to be incorporated into the new Digico entity by way of an equity subscription by RTE to that entity;

The establishment of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to replace the Independent Radio and Television Commission;

The possibility of the establishment, by ministerial order, of Teilifis na Gaeilge as an independent broadcasting authority. RTE will continue to supply at least a third of the programming costs of that service;

Contrary to previous thinking by the Minister, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission will continue to exercise an independent role as the watchdog of standards in all sectors of broadcasting on behalf of the audiences.

The proposed legislation does at least one useful thing by giving a definition of public service broadcasting:

(a) to provide a comprehensive range of programmes in Irish and English which reflect the cultural diversity of the whole island of Ireland; To provide programmes which entertain, inform and educate, to provide coverage of sporting and cultural activities and to cater for the expectations of the community generally as well as members of the community with special or minority interests and which, in every case, respect human dignity;

(b) to provide programmes of news and current affairs in Irish and English, including programmes that provide coverage of proceedings in the Houses of the Oireachtas and the European Parliament, and (c) to facilitate or assist contemporary cultural expression.

The definition of public service broadcasting, insofar as it goes, seems intended to place a bulwark against the attack of the European Commission against state subsidies rather than to define what it is the viewers actually need: to face up to the discredited cultural stance of the EU Commission and to support more home-produced programming sought by the audiences and for which they pay a licence levy of £70.

The definition given in Ms de Valera's legislation removes any obligation from TV3 or indeed Today FM to provide seriously an Irish broadcasting service to Irish audiences.

There is nothing in Ms de Valera's Bill for broadcasting which brings about any change in the present broadcasting regime or positions any change in the manner in which the people might either expect an improvement in the quality of programming or in providing support from the State or the Exchequer in increasing the amount of home-produced programming.

The test of this must ultimately be sought in the way in which Ms de Valera proposes to deal with Teilifis na Gaeilge.

Apart from giving it at some time in the future a flag of independence from RTE, it can travel alone without any new source of finance. TnaG cannot survive on that basis.

The significant factor in the Minister's thinking and in her legislation is that the State is not prepared to spend or provide any money in the sustenance of quality broadcasting except and insofar as the Government wants to establish new quangos within which to place its nominees in a supervisory role over the field of broadcasting.

The public, the licence fee-payers, have not been provided with any input as to the establishment of programming standards or a quota of home-produced programming realising the needs of the viewers in the matter of "story-telling" about themselves.

There are no financial implications in this broadcasting Bill, Sile de Valera. that is to say whatever bills there are and may be will not be paid by the Exchequer.

The burden of Ms de Valera's legislation is of interest only to broadcasting organisations and lays out in detail how the new Broadcasting Commission of Ireland - Coimisin Craolachain na hEireann - will function and how deftly the Minister has managed to place the RTE Authority in a position of subsidiarity in the hierarchical game played by ministers for culture in their control of broadcasting.

The truth is that her legislation has been overtaken by the purchase by NTL of Cablelink on the instigation of her ministerial colleague, Ms O'Rourke, who, in insisting on the disposal by RTE of its share in that company has, effectively, destroyed a national broadcasting culture.

The only surviving grace in Ms de Valera's legislation is that the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, acting on behalf of the public, will continue to exercise its mandate independently of new quangos and structures.

The Government, far from reforming RTE or, indeed, requiring TV3 and Today FM seriously to address their audiences, has simply folded its aerial.

Muiris Mac Conghail is a media consultant and former controller of programmes at RTE