CRITICS of Teilifis na Gaeilge failed to recognise its economic significance as a catalyst for the audiovisual industry, according to Udaras na Gaeltachta.
The chief executive of the Gaeltacht authority, Mr Ruan O Bric, said technological change meant peripheral areas were no longer at a disadvantage when it came to making television programmes or films. There was already a thriving audio visual industry in the Gaeltacht which had succeeded in selling programmes to places like South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iceland and the Netherlands.
This industry was entering a anew phase with the advent of TnaG. Its true capital was the energy, vitality and creativity of the young people involved in making the programmes. The economic advantages derived from it out weighed the cost of TnaG, he said.
Mr O Bric was speaking in Irish at the presentation of certificates to graduates of television training courses run by the Udaras and RTE. A showreel of student work was shown at the ceremony, which took place in Spiddal, Co Galway, at the weekend.
He said some attacks on TnaG displayed a gross intolerance for diversity by using terms drawn from the former apartheid regime in South Africa. The same journalist who used the term "Teilifis de Lorean" to describe the new station had also described Gaeltacht areas as "bantustans".