€500k facelift will aid Oireachtas coverage

Television coverage of the Houses of the Oireachtas is set to get a facelift with nearly €500,000 being spent this year on efforts to improve broadcasting from the parliament.

The Ceann Comhairle, Sean Barrett, has also opened discussions with different cable providers about extending coverage of parliamentary business to as many viewers as possible.

The Oireachtas Commission has agreed to pump funds into improving the broadcasting of business from the Dáil, Seanad, and committees.

Currently, proceedings from the Dáil are broadcast free of charge and can be viewed by customers with cable provider UPC. The Oireachtas channel is viewed by an estimated 20,000 people every day.

Improved production of the channel will now see captions put on television screens to explain the business of the day in the Dáil, Seanad, or committees. This will also improve webcasting of proceedings.

Minutes from a commission meeting earlier this year state: “The aim of this is to make the channel more improving to viewers and allow them to better follow the proceedings. It will also make the channel more attractive to potential distributors such as Sky Ireland.”

Once-off costs of €220,000 plus annual costs of €200,000 are needed for the channel upgrade, the commission agreed.

The Oireachtas has confirmed the channel facelift is going ahead. It was also confirmed that Mr Barrett has met with the head of Sky Ireland about extending coverage to the cable providers’ customers.

“We hope discussions there will progress over the summer months and that the improvement in the quality of the production of the channel will convince Sky to get behind an Irish parliamentary channel,” a statement to the Irish Examiner read. New equipment and broadcasting arrangements will allow the channel switch from Dáil, Seanad and committee meetings as events arise, the Oireachtas added.

However, discussions with RTÉ’s Saorview about broadcasting proceedings are “at a standstill”, the Oireachtas said.

“The pilot Oireachtas channel is obviously a specialist non-commercial public service and so it cannot finance the charges required to get on Saorview,” said a statement from the Oireachtas.

“This is about bringing the Irish parliament closer to the public and allowing them to decide when to watch the Oireachtas.”