None of the members of the outgoing Independent Radio and Television Commission has been reappointed by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera. The new IRTC, under the chairmanship of Mr Conor Maguire SC, takes office on Saturday.
Under Ms de Valera's proposed broadcasting legislation, the IRTC will have a greatly expanded role, with responsibility for broadcasting complaints, licensing new digital services and setting standards.
With this in mind it would appear the Minister did not feel that continuity with the outgoing body was necessary, and she has made the most radical clean sweep in the 10-year history of the regulatory body.
The outgoing IRTC had two members who were first appointed by Fianna Fail to the original IRTC in 1988, Mr Kieran Mulvey of the Labour Relations Commission and Mr Gerry Danaher SC. Ms Gillian Bowler was also appointed to the last two IRTCs, but she resigned recently from the outgoing one. She was replaced by the Cork journalist, Ms Ann Mooney, who might, given her short period on the IRTC, have expected to be reappointed.
Yesterday Ms de Valera said she intended that the new commission would remain in place to take on the expanded role of the IRTC as envisaged under her proposed broadcasting legislation, which is currently being drafted. The IRTC will be asked to prepare for its expanded role in advance of legislation. It will remain in office for the next five years, though it will have to be formally reappointed when the new legislation comes into effect early next year.
The IRTC would be the broadcasting regulator as we moved into the digital broadcasting era, she said, and there was a considerable amount of preparatory work that could be done with regard to the setting of broadcasting standards and to the establishment of a regulatory regime for broadcast content providers on the various broadcasting delivery platforms in advance of the legislation.
The new IRTC has a 50-50 gender balance. New members with Fianna Fail connections include Ms Olive Braiden, who stood for the party in the last European election, and Ms Mary Kerrigan, a former head of Fianna Fail's press office. Mr Frank Masterson is a former Progressive Democrats candidate in Kildare.
The Minister has steered away from any direct representation of industry interests. Mr Caimin Jones is a former managing director of a local station, but now runs his own media consultancy. Dr Colum Kenny has been a longtime critic of the IRTC, and lectures in broadcasting policy.
Ms Patricia O'Donovan, deputy general secretary of the ICTU, represents the wider trade union movement, rather than one of the unions directly involved with the independent radio or television sector.