Greens take RTÉ to court over conference ‘snub’
RTÉ also confirmed last night that audience figures for party conferences invariably attract only half the normal number of viewers for programmes normally broadcast at that time.
The Greens claim that RTÉ is deliberately excluding them from their live coverage, but RTÉ says that the party does not have enough TDs or support to justify the airtime.
Under RTÉ rules, a political party must have at least seven TDs or have got five percent of the vote in the general election to qualify for live coverage of their party conference.
But the Greens received 3.8% of the total poll in the election 71,480 votes and have just six TDs, so they fail on both grounds.
Sinn Féin's conference will be broadcast live for the first time this year. The party has only five TDs, but qualify for coverage as they took 6.5% of the poll 121,309 votes. The Progressive Democrats have eight TDs, but received just 3.96% of the vote 73,268 votes.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party obviously all qualify comfortably on both grounds.
The parties will all get two hours' live coverage of their morning session and then a choice of coverage options for their leader's keynote address later that evening: 8.30-9pm on RTÉ One. 8-9pm on Network Two. 5-6pm on RTÉ One.
Sinn Féin is opting for the pre-teatime hour RTÉ One later this year, and the PDs are going for the half hour on RTÉ One just before the Nine O'Clock news for their conference.
The Greens are claiming that the RTÉ evaluation system is too crude and that as well as their six TDs, they have two MEPs. The party also points out that RTÉ bent its own rules for the past five years for the PDs, who previously had just four TDs after securing just 4.68% of the national poll in the 1997 general election.
The court case arose now as the Green Party conference takes place on March 1, so they are anxious to resolve the problem. GP general secretary Stiofán Nutty said last night that RTÉ senior management were not willing to negotiate.
"The Green Party is the only national political party that is being excluded from live coverage. We were extremely reluctant to take this route, but the party felt that it could not allow RTÉ's decision to go unchallenged," he said.
But last night, RTÉ head of public affairs policy Peter Feeney said the national broadcaster was sticking to its long-standing ground rules.
"We will be resisting any effort they might make. RTÉ is not obliged to cover any conference," he said.
The exception was made in the PD's case as their support was rounded up to five percent and their percentage vote had not declined since 1992 when the party had 10 seats. The PDs were given just half an hour as a compromise arrangement, and last year, Mary Harney's speech drew just 120,000 viewers.
