Prime Time investigation of RTÉ would be a ratings hit!

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley

If another organisation was breaking the law like RTÉ was in relation to its statutory obligations to the Irish language, then the national broadcaster would commission a Prime Time Investigates programme to probe the matter.

And RTÉ would make a big story out of its findings.

So said Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív to RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes at a sitting of the Choiste Oireachtas na Gaeilge last month.

During the meeting, the Fianna Fáil Deputy and his constituency colleague, Catherine Connolly (Ind), highlighted RTÉ’s failure to deliver sufficient Irish language programming in line with its statutory obligations.

An RTÉ Prime Time Investigates investigating RTÉ? Now that’d be a ratings hit!

But what would a Prime Time Investigates programme about RTÉ actually look like?

An Coimisinéir Teanga, Rónán Ó Domhnaill (ex-RTÉ, as it happens) would surely have to take part. It was his investigation in 2019, which brought to light deficiencies in RTÉ’s Irish language programming.

And the organisation’s failures to meet its statutory obligations to Gaeilge are ongoing – two years later.  That’s why Éamó and Cat have raised the issue again.

If Prime Time Investigates did interview Ó Domhnaill it would discover that his office’s investigation found that RTÉ had breached the Broadcasting Act 2009.

This was due to RTÉ “not broadcasting a comprehensive range of television programmes in Irish or current affairs television programmes in Irish, as the legislation requires”.

In response, RTÉ said it planned to increase its Irish language output from 123 hours in 2017 to a minimum of 533 hours in 2020. News programmes in Irish would account for 58% of the increase on the RTÉ News Now channel, while programmes for children and young adults would account for 28% of the extra hours.

Ó Domhnaill said it was clear that there was a rise in broadcasting hours in Irish on RTÉ but it was “coming from a very low level to begin with” and he concluded last year that “it cannot be confirmed at this point that a comprehensive range of programmes is being provided as the legislation requires”.

In an update this week, the office of An Coimisinéir Teanga told Bradley Bytes: “We have continued to liaise with RTÉ and although we acknowledge that some progress has been made, we are not yet satisfied that the recommendations of the investigation have been fully implemented. We are awaiting a plan in the next couple of months to increase the provision of Irish language programming for the three years 2022-2024.”

Ó Domhnaill could go nuclear and lay the report before the Houses of the Oireachtas if the recommendations are not implemented in full. But for now, RTÉ is co-operating and “the process involves the monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations of the investigation”.

But back to how the programme about RTÉ might look. After interviews with Ó Domhnaill and a few Gaeilgeoirí, the camera cuts to the ‘high-tech’ Studio 5, for the grand finale of Prime Time Investigates – where presenter Sarah McInerney grills Dee Forbes like she does weekly to Government ministers.

That’d be so entertaining it’d command one-off pay-per-view subscription fees, which could be reinvested in RTÉ’s Irish language offering.

(Photo: The Prime Time team of Sarah McInerney, Miriam O’Callaghan and Fran McNulty. RTÉ’s failure to deliver sufficient Irish language programming, in line with its statutory obligations would make an ideal subject for a Prime Time Investigates programme).

This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. To read more, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.