THE Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht is proposing a new "super authority" to regulate all broadcasting, including RTE. The proposals promise a fundamental shake up of broadcasting.
The new legislation would allow the Minister to designate certain sporting events as part of Ireland's cultural heritage and rule that they must be shown on a universally available television channel.
The proposal is contained in a detailed draft memorandum to Government from Mr Higgins for new broadcasting legislation.
According to the heads of the Bill, the new legislation would have a provision allowing the Minister to designate certain events as having a cultural importance and making them available on television to all.
It means sporting bodies in the State might face legal problems if they tried to sell rights to sporting events exclusively to subscription or pay per view television services.
The explanatory note in the 50 page document, which has been seen by The Irish Times, says the provision is designed to prevent the "migration of major sporting events from universally accessible broadcasters such as RTE to subscription or pay per view channels".
The provision would relate to events organised in Ireland by Irish sporting organisations.
The designation would apply to any event following consultations with the Minister for Education and a new regulatory body, the broadcasting commission, which would be established by the Bill. The Minister would then issue an Order.
The most obvious examples, according to the document, would be the All Ireland hurling and football finals.
The proposals represent a fundamental review of Irish broadcasting, the first since the primary legislation was put in place over 30 years ago, when the 1960 Broadcasting Authority Act established the RTE Authority.
The 1988 Act established independent commercial broadcasting and the Independent Radio and Television Commission as the regulator for that sector.
The proposed legislation would abolish the IRTC and downgrade the RTE Authority in favour of the broadcasting commission which would regulate all broadcasting activity in the State.
The RTE Authority would become a board of a national broadcasting corporation, to be charged with operating the present RTE services, but under the general policy guidance of the commission. The proposals would also give the overdue legal basis for Teilifis na Gaeilge.
The establishment of the "super authority", as it has been dubbed, was a suggestion in the Green Paper on broadcasting. RTE in its response to the Green Paper said it was opposed to the idea of one overall authority, which would have the effect of making RTE just another broadcaster.
Under Mr Higgins's proposals the commission would have huge powers to investigate RTE. It could investigate RTE's administrative structures to ensure they were up to meeting its statutory remit "and that the structures employed by RTE promote innovation, quality, diversity".
One of the more controversial proposals is for the functions of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission to be taken over by the new commission.
The Broadcasting Complaints Commission was within the ambit of the RTE Authority until it was taken away by Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien, when he was Minister responsible for broadcasting in 1976. Under Mr Higgins's proposals there would be no final authority, outside broadcasting, to which a member of the public could complain.
The legislation would also repeal Section 31 of the Broadcasting Authority Act.
The commission could insist that independent broadcasters devote up to 10 per cent of the cost of programming to programmes in Irish. This would not mean 10 per cent of programme output, as has been reported.
The broadcasting commission would also have responsibility for administering the licence fee income, although it would still go to RTE.