Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Revised General Scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill: Motion Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21 ============================================================ Frankie Feighan (FG), Sligo-Leitrim I thank Deputy Byrne for her contribution this evening. It reflects the level of scrutiny already undertaken of the provisions of the broadcasting (amendment) Bill. In my opening statement, I did not have the opportunity to discuss some of the areas raised by the committee in the pre-legislative scrutiny report, so I will turn to those first. The committee made 12 recommendations relating to the audience councils of RTÉ and TG4. The audience councils play an important role in representing the views of the people of the island of Ireland to the boards of RTÉ and TG4 in respect of the activities of the providers. The Bill will expand the role of the audience councils by providing for the independence of the audience councils of RTÉ and TG4 and the selection of members of both councils by Coimisiún na Meán following a public competition. Eight of the committee's recommendations have been addressed through the broadcasting (amendment) Bill. In particular, the Bill now requires that RTÉ and TG4 must respond to every annual report prepared by an audience council, in addition to any special report. An audience council plays a role structurally distinct from that of Coimisiún na Meán as regulator, adding an additional and different level of accountability. The Bill clearly provides for those three separate and distinct roles. In addition to strengthening the independence of the audience councils, the Bill seeks to ensure they are representative of the people of the island of Ireland, including certain under-served audiences, such as those who may be under-served by virtue of their age or where they live. In that context and in line with the recommendations of the committee, the Bill now provides for specific reference to ensuring membership of the councils of those who are under-served by virtue of a disability. The Bill is intended to provide a robust legislative foundation for the growth in Irish-language programming and journalism. Central to this is a requirement that a minimum of 25% of funding disbursed through media schemes must be made available for Irish-language content. The committee made six recommendations aimed at further promoting the Irish language in the media sector, five of which the Minister has addressed directly in the Bill. In particular, the review of public service content undertaken by Coimisiún na Meán will now specifically include a review of public service content provision in the Irish language. The Bill also provides that the Broadcasting Fund will remain Ciste na Meán rather than the media fund, as recommended by the committee. Given that the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act was enacted only three and a half years ago, the Bill includes limited provisions for media regulation, focusing instead on ensuring that Coimisiún na Meán has sufficient powers to ensure the online safety framework and sufficient powers in bringing RTÉ's and TG4's non-broadcast content under the ambit of media service duties and codes. However, there is one area I would like to take the opportunity to highlight. The committee recommended that provision be made in the Bill for the monitoring, reporting and setting of targets relating to airplay for Irish musicians on radio, including diversity of musical forms, artists and experience. As Deputies are aware, airplay quotas based on the nationality of a musician are contrary to European law. As an alternative, the Bill provides express authority to Coimisiún na Meán to make media services codes to promote a diversity of music composed or performed by persons with a connection with the island of Ireland on radio. It also provides that the codes include provisions to measure the level of diversity, which will enable us all to assess how radio broadcasters are performing in showcasing Irish musicians. The main focus of the national reaction to the broadcasting (amendment) Bill has been on the appointment of the Comptroller and Auditor General as auditor of RTÉ. This is understandable given the events of the past week. The reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the annual financial statements of RTÉ and the direct accountability of the director general to the Committee of Public Accounts are central to the reform of RTÉ. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, is therefore hoping to progress the Bill and commence the relevant sections as quickly as possible to provide the necessary authority to the Comptroller and Auditor General to audit RTÉ's 2026 financial statements. However, as the extensive pre-legislative scrutiny report of the committee attests, this legislation is far-reaching and intended to comprehensively address transparency, accountability and value for money in our public service media providers and support for public interest journalism and quality programming more generally. The provisions of the Bill are intended to be complementary and reinforcing. With regard to value for money, while the Comptroller and Auditor General will be auditing RTÉ's accounts on an annual basis, we are also strengthening the role of Coimisiún na Meán in assessing the annual performance of RTÉ and TG4 against the statutory public service remit. On transparency, RTÉ will be required to publish information not only on the remuneration of staff and contractors but also on the cost of commissioning from the independent sector, including information on the contribution made to commissioning costs across the public sector. On accountability, Coimisiún na Meán, rather than RTÉ and TG4 themselves, will now ultimately determine the performance commitments of our public service providers and will hold them to account for that performance. The Bill, First Stage of which will commence shortly, reflects the vital role of pre-legislative scrutiny in our legislative process. The Bill takes account of many of the committee's recommendations and is stronger and more robust for it. I know that the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, looks forward to working with the committee to bring the Bill through the legislative process to enactment. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-21