I move amendment No. 42: In page 45, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following: “Duties with regard to regional balance 9. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 39: “Duties with regard to regional balance 39A. (1) Coimisiún na Meán shall prepare and publish a report no later than five years following its establishment proposing recommendations on how the State could ensure that all public bodies engaged in the distribution of State moneys for the production, scr…

I move amendment No. 43: In page 45, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following: “Duties to the Irish Language 9. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 39: “Duties to the Irish Language 39A. (1) All audiovisual media service providers and sound media broadcasters in the State have a duty to support the promotion of the Irish language as the national language. (2) The Commission shall examine the feasibility and merit of setting mandatory minimum content requireme…

Banning certain speech or coverage from being broadcast is a serious matter, especially if the grounds for the banning are subjective and left to unelected civil servants to define, as proposed. While my party colleague Deputy Munster discussed one of the amendments in the grouping, I will focus on amendments Nos. 45 and 46, which relate to lines 22 and 23 of page 51. I understand from the debate that took place in the Seanad that this wording is considered a necessary ground for banning a broadcast to comply with …

I move amendment No. 45: In page 51, to delete lines 22 and 23.

I move amendment No. 46: In page 51, to delete lines 22 and 23 and substitute the following: “(e) anything which may reasonably be regarded as tending to undermine the authority of the State, unless such broadcast or availability can be reasonably regarded as preserving liberty of expression as enshrined in Article 40.6 of the Constitution, including criticism of Government policy.”.

I move amendment No. 48: In page 53, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “Music in the Irish language and of European Origin 46LA. (1) A provider of a sound broadcasting service shall ensure that, in the programmes to be provided for under the sound broadcasting service contract— (a) of the aggregate amount of transmission time allocated to music content in a given year, excluding time allocated to music content which would reasonably be considered Irish traditional music, at least 5 per cent shall be r…

I move amendment No. 49: In page 53, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “Sound Streaming Media and Music Sharing Platform Services 46LA. (1)The Commission shall, no later than one year after its establishment, designate as a category of services the sound streaming media and music-sharing platform services under the jurisdiction of the State. (2) The Commission shall designate as a named service under this section any relevant online service that appears to the Commission to be a sound streaming media …

I move amendment No. 50: In page 53, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(1A) (a) A television broadcaster or provider of audio-visual services that targets Irish audiences with advertisements shall ensure that of the total hourly time devoted to the broadcasting of advertisements on any service, at least 20 per cent of the advertisements shall be in the Irish language from 31 December 2025. (b) The Commission shall prepare and publish a report to be laid before the Minister, both Houses of the Oireac…

I move Amendment No. 66: In page 56, line 21, after “persons” to insert “, including Irish speakers,”.

I move amendment No. 67: In page 56, line 22, after “persons” to insert “, including Irish speakers,”.

I move amendment No. 69: In page 69, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 82 of Principal Act 32. Section 82 of the Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2): “(2A) In the case of no fewer than 50 per cent of the board members of RTÉ, a person shall not be appointed to these roles unless he or she is able to communicate proficiently in the Irish language.”.”.

I move amendment No. 70: In page 70, to delete lines 2 to 4 and substitute the following: “34. Section 114 of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (1)— (a) in paragraph (f), by the substation of “in full, unless limited by factors beyond the control of RTÉ,” for “, in so far as RTÉ considers reasonably practicable,”, and (b) in paragraph (h), by the substitution of “audiovisual on-demand media services”for “non-broadcast non-linear audio-visual media services”.”.

I move amendment No. 72: In page 70, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “Equal Pay for Equal Work 35. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 114: “Equal Pay for Equal Work 114A . RTÉ shall ensure that no worker is paid more for the same amount and form of work to produce content in the English language as a worker is paid to produce content in the Irish language.”.”.

Baineann an leasú seo le cearta teanga, cearta oibrithe agus cearta comhionnanais. We have outlined on Committee Stage how RTÉ is paying Irish language workers up to 25% less for the same work as their English-speaking counterparts. This is discrimination, pure and simple, and it is unacceptable. We have a chance to enshrine equal pay for equal work in the law. It has been done in many other areas but if this level of discrimination was to take place on any other grounds, it would be considered scandalous and be de…

Tá eolas agam ar an sárobair a dhéanann na craoltóirí agus na hiriseoirí i Raidió na Gaeltachta, mar shampla. Chualamar cheana féin faoi na stáisiúin ar fud na tíre. Beimid ag lorg vótála ar an leasú seo.

I want to raise again the issue of the pay rates for community employment supervisors. These schemes provide vital infrastructure in communities not only in Kerry but throughout the country including maintaining graveyards, for example in Lixnaw, and working with GAA clubs in Crotta, Lixnaw and St. Senan's. Listowel municipal district has the highest disability rate in the county and the highest ageing population in the whole of the State. When there were crises such as Covid or the economic crash these community g…

What are the Minister's views on Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, inspections of international protection accommodation service, IPAS, contracted properties? Will he make a statement on the matter? The context of this question is the rapid expansion of such properties, given the massive increase in the number of international protection applicants and people arriving in the country under the temporary protection directive.

I thank the Minister. Our obligation to vulnerable people does not change. I know that some of these centres were temporary rather than permanent but some temporary centres have been in operation for four years. It is clear that many people will be in these centres for a long time. I was glad to hear the other day that people who are living in tents in the Tralee area will be moved. I am not sure whether they have been moved yet. There are different categories. People who are living in tents should be subject to in…

I thank the Minister for the reply. We welcome the not-for-profit approach recommended in the White Paper and will give the Minister every support in trying to move to that model. There has obviously been much outsourcing of this accommodation. It is not ideal that some accommodation providers are listing categories of people they will take and categories of people they do not want to take. The Department should perhaps be stronger. In light of the amount of remuneration the providers are obtaining, their precondit…

Following on from the Minister's previous reply, my question is in regard to what will be the extent of the HIQA inspections that are to be carried out before Christmas and how many of the centres will be inspected. In the meantime, I want to know what staff are Garda vetted, whether they have any child protection training and whether there have been reports of assaults in those places. Should we be concerned?