IT would be "madness" to give money to independent broadcasters to encourage certain types of programmes, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Mr Higgins, told a conference on the future of broadcasting in Dublin yesterday.
To an angry reaction from an audience mainly involved in local commercial radio, the Minister said he understood that his decision to define public service broadcasting as a service provided by a broadcaster in public ownership might be difficult for the independent broadcasting sector to accept.
This was not to denigrate the efforts of independent broadcasters. They often provided programmes that would fit easily into many people's understanding of a public service programme.
In the context of a general shift towards a consumer model of broadcasting, the value of public communications as a public good needed to be reconciled with the increasing pressures that sought to treat it as a commodity.
"In my view it is necessary to continue to support organisations with the statutory responsibility to treat broadcasting as a public good, essential for the maintenance of an informed public opinion which is the bedrock of democracy."
Highlighting the difference between RTE, as a public service broadcaster, and the independent commercial sector, Mr Higgins said that if a public service broadcaster made a profit it was ploughed back into broadcasting.
The president of the Association of Independent Radio Stations (AIRS) and chief executive of Highland Radio, Mr Charlie Collins, said Mr Higgins had failed miserably to produce the necessary sort of legislation.
Legislation was to follow the publication of the Green Paper. This had not happened. When the Minister wanted something done, then it did happen, such as the establishment of Teilifis na Gaeilge, or raising the licence fee by £8. No one could tell him (Mr Collins) that he was not producing programmes worthy of being called public service programming.
Independent radio and the advertising industry had both been ignored by the Minister when he was drawing up his legislative proposals. The Minister had done nothing to ensure the survival of good radio, Mr Collins added.