It would be difficult to argue that broadcasting has not played a major role in our lives for most of the 20th century, or that television has not been a major cultural force for almost half a century.
Public service broadcasting organisations, which have been the principal players during this period, have made accessible to the masses the full range of cultural and artistic expression from which previously a vast majority were excluded.
Television, for all that it is accused of trivialising, has democratised knowledge and has, particularly over the past 20 years, brought debate on social, political and economic matters to a new level and to the population at large, including to those with little formal education and scant financial resources.
RTE, as a public broadcaster, has played its part in this process. It has also made, I believe, a major contribution to the redefinition of Irishness about which Fintan O'Toole wrote in his article in The Irish Times recently.
It has provided a full range of programming to all our people, reflecting in recent years the complexities of Irish society. It has created a forum in which all the citizens, minorities included, could participate in the airing and discussion of ideas and concepts. RTE has enriched life significantly on this island.
The fact that we have had to operate in the shadow of the most powerful, and probably the best, public service broadcasting organisation in the world, the BBC, has been a mixed blessing.
On one hand, we have had to compete with a broadcaster for which excellence in programme-making and high standards were the prime motivation. On the other hand, we have had to compete with a powerful neighbour, with a fraction of its resources, and yet strive to foster the culture, language and identity of this country with English as its lingua franca.
Taking into account the resources available to us, I believe RTE has played a major role in the cultural life of this island, be it in the domain of the Irish language, of music, of sport - especially coverage of our national games - and of open and democratic discussion.
We must continue to play this role, but to do so in the new digital environment will require that the relevance and importance of this role be fully recognised and, more importantly, supported and encouraged.
Even the BBC has had to adapt to the marketplace to retain credibility as a broadcaster. Consequently, it has had to introduce more popular programming to its television schedules to compete against the increasingly aggressive ITV, which, in search of ratings, banished News at Ten to the fringes of its output and dropped some of its hard-hitting current affairs programmes.
ITV also had the commercial audacity to broadcast three times on Christmas night the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? This halved the traditional ratings which the BBC enjoyed on Christmas Day in previous years.
There are plenty of other European examples of relatively well-resourced public broadcasters struggling to maintain programme standards while keeping a sufficient share of the audience to justify their existence and public subsidies.
What then of broadcasting in Ireland at the end of this millennium, and what of the future for RTE.
RTE has a total turnover of £180 million. This covers all of its radio, television and news operations, as well as its orchestras, choirs and other services. It broadcasts to only one million households and yet competes for share against a panoply of channels, including the totally commercial ITV and TV3.
The broadcasting miracle is not that we are doing so little but that we are doing so much. It does not matter whether TV programmes are produced in London or Limerick, in Dusseldorf or Dublin as far as costs are concerned.
RTE is expected to provide a full and comprehensive service catering for all tastes and interests. It must also simultaneously address the needs of several generations in this Ireland of such momentous change, and provide relevant programming to all parts of this island and beyond.
The public service remit of RTE television has never been adequately financed but, as we enter the new millennium, it is even less so.
As far as television is concerned, the achievement has been that in spite of an increasingly dominant reliance on advertising revenue and, consequently, on our need to maintain our share at 44 per cent against all other terrestrial and satellite broadcasters, we have managed to keep our high ratio of so-called serious programming and to maintain it in prime-time slots.
As a former RTE controller of programmes - and at times staunch critic of this organisation - Muiris MacConghail, writing in the recent issue of the broadcasting journal In Production, states: "RTE has a case to make that it is sustaining both popular and serious culture in Ireland, and more so than the entire combination of all the print and other outlets in the country."
He is right when he goes on to say that RTE is failing to make this case. However, I respond by saying that we rely on our public to judge, rather than on television critics, whether RTE's television output is important enough for them to desist pushing the buttons on their remote controls and going to the 20 or more channels now available in most parts of the country.
To the charges levelled against us more often these days that we are "dumbing down", I say: "Show me the evidence and look at our competitors' output."
Every weekday evening on our first channel we broadcast 1 1/2 hours of news in prime time. On three evenings we also broadcast a half-hour regional news features programme. In addition, on three evenings a week we have another 21/2 hours of current affairs. There are few channels with this amount of hard information programming.
When this programming is adorned with the old virtues of public service broadcasting - honesty, fairness and impartiality - then RTE cannot be accused of selling out on fundamental values and high standards.
There are also factual documentary programmes, in pre- and postNine O'Clock News slots, as well as series across the week of the standard of Ear To The Ground, Out of the Blue, Leargas and Would You Believe. All these programmes are placed in what is considered to be prime time.
There is also the arts programme Cursai Ealaine. This is also, uniquely, in prime time at 7.30 p.m. Contrary to recent speculation, it is to remain as part of our schedule.
The only debate surrounding arts programmes is not about whether they remain in the schedules but whether they should be made in RTE itself or in the independent sector, to which we have an increasing financial commitment.
One does not resent this commitment and were the resources adequate to us to meet it - whilst at the same time maintaining in-house production at its current level - then no hard choices would have to be made and we could fully nurture both sectors.
However, this is not now the case. And, should more funding not become available, then, as the amount spent on external production increases, that spent in making programmes within RTE must decrease.
This may or may not have been the precise objective of the 1992 broadcasting legislation, but it is, in prevailing conditions, the inevitable consequence. RTE, and those involved in programme-making within it, must now adjust to this.
It was for this reason that the books programme Undercover - it returns to our schedules next month with profiles of some of our major writers, including William Trevor, John McGahern, John Banville, Maeve Binchy and Paul Muldoon - began its life within RTE but is now provided to us by the independent sector.
Such realities are not, nor should they be, of any particular relevance to our audiences. Yet they do need to be understood and recognised by those who write about the media.
To those who say that our commitment to the arts is weakening, then look to four major documentaries which will grace our screens in the months ahead.
One is on a major Irish playwright of the 20th century, Brian Friel; another on the much-ignored Irish architect of both US and international repute, Kevin Roche; another (to celebrate the extraordinary achievement of the Municipal Gallery in obtaining the artist's studio) on the painter Francis Bacon; and another on the too-quickly-forgotten work of one of the great Irish cinematographers, Paddy Carey.
This is not to mention our coming millennium series on Irish architecture in this century, Nation Building.
We may sometimes wish to change our approach to reflecting the state of the arts in this country, but our commitment to this part of our output remains undiminished.
The television coverage of sports alone - from Formula One racing to the Premiership, to rugby, to Gaelic games - would alone justify the £1 per week licence fee paid by households. This coverage, in its range, professionalism and comprehensiveness, equals and, indeed, surpasses that on any channel, public or private, in Europe today.
By uniting our people in celebration of the triumphs of our sportsmen and sportswomen, or in sadness at their defeat, RTE continues to occupy a unique place in the life of this country.
There are other manifestations of our uniqueness, such as that most significant series States of Fear. On a week-to-week basis we have The Late Late Show and our homegrown drama series Fair City and Glenroe. We have invested considerable resources in our new satirical series, Bull Island, which is also broadcast in prime time and which is finding favour. There is also coverage of landmarks in the life of the State, such as the removal and laying to rest of the remains of former Taoiseach Jack Lynch. It has been, is and will be essential that a national broadcaster exist to rise to such occasions and, putting public service before profits or ratings, reflect what is important in the life of the State.
Of course, gaps exist in our television schedules. Of course, we should be doing more drama, more popular music programmes, contributing more to Irish film-making, producing more programmes which reflect upon, and analyse, the direction in which this country is heading as it enters the new millennium.
And RTE is capable of providing this and more if it is adequately resourced and its place in our democratic and cultural tradition is recognised by policy-makers and the public.
As it is, the commercial revenue available to RTE is under threat as more commercial broadcasters vie for a slice of what is, ultimately, not an enormous cake.
We have shown that our television channels, RTE 1 and Network 2, can compete with the best and most resourceful. Yet for how much longer can we play two roles simultaneously: a commercial operator whose existence depends alarmingly on what it can earn in the marketplace and that of a public service broadcaster?
We will, as our Christmas and millennium schedules demonstrated, continue to compete. Both our channels will offer vibrant, dynamic and competitive schedules, appealing to all demographic groups. However, as more choice becomes available, our determination to remain a public service broadcaster will come under increasing strain.
This is the dilemma facing all public broadcasters, including RTE. Yet most of our sister organisations in Europe are far better resourced from public funding than we are.
There are those who will immediately say: "Let the marketplace decide." There are also those who will ask how relevant broadcasting organisations like RTE are in the new age of digital channels, the Internet and other sources of information and entertainment.
No doubt considerable benefits will flow to those with the means to avail of all the benefits which new technology will bestow.
Yet public service broadcasting, available to all citizens, motivated by the highest ideals and providing programming to inform, educate and entertain, would be abandoned in this small country at great peril. The risk to our culture and identity will certainly be great.
RTE has the talent, expertise and creativity to serve the Irish public in the new millennium and serve it well. However, it cannot be assumed that it will do so unaided and left simply to market forces. Broadcasting is a service like education and health. It is provided to people irrespective of their status or whether they are rich or poor.
Perhaps this is the outdated thinking of someone who has grown up with public service broadcasting and who has worked in it for 30 years. Perhaps the days of a public united in watching an event are numbered.
Perhaps we are not far off the time when new technology will create a knowledge-rich elite and a knowledge-poor class. Perhaps talk of preserving in broadcasting the rich fabric of European cultures, including our own, is obsolete.
And perhaps we should allow public service broadcasting organisations to compete with the growing number of global broadcasting conglomerates, for which broadcasting is a commodity to generate maximum profits.
In a Green Paper published in 1995, the debate on broadcasting in this State was raised to a new level and, for the first time, the importance of having a vibrant public service broadcasting sector was recognised.
It is now time for the debate to be restarted and for the public to decide what kind of broadcasting service and choices it wants.
If the public wants quality programmes, catering in a free-to-air way for all sections of society, then it must be prepared to pay a reasonable amount for the maintenance of this service. Governments must ensure that, whilst allowing for consumer choice, they play a proactive role in defending the values of public service broadcasting.
Joe Mulholland is managing director - television at RTE
RTE has the talent and creativity to serve the Irish public in the new millennium and serve it well. However, it cannot be assumed that it will do so unaided and left simply to market forces
