Sir, - Mr Kenneth Edwards, Honorary PRO of the Irish Hard of Hearing Association, has challenged RTE policy on programme subtitling, with particular reference to news (May 11th). I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the situation for both Mr Edwards and the hard-of-hearing community.
RTE subtitled 25.5 hours of acquired material, 10 hours of home-produced programming and three live shows each week - Questions & Answers, the Late Late Show and Saturday Live - in 1999. We subtitled Seven Ages and Erin is Alba this year. We currently subtitle Crimeline each month, all the programmes in the UnderCover series, Ally McBeal, Dawson's Creek, three episodes of Fair City each week and Glenroe.
We would very much like to subtitle more. Unfortunately, we are limited by the number of skilled stenographers available to do the job. There are no broadcast stenographers in the country. Those who cover our live programmes are court stenographers, four of whom are available periodically to RTE.
We are currently in negotiations, however, with an English company whose core business is broadcast stenography, with a view to subtitling the 9 O'Clock News, and subsequently, the other two main news bulletins on RTE One. This company has successfully completed tests with us. The technology to link us cost-effectively with the England-based stenographers is being refined and investigated at the moment. We hope to instigate the service in the new future.
I trust this reply reassures Mr Edwards of RTE's commitment to the hard-of-hearing community. - Yours, etc.,
Kevin Healy, Director of Public Affairs, RTE, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.