A Teilifis na Gaeilge council member has said that the service is not attracting a significant audience for Irish-language prog rammes and should be revamped either as a Gaeltacht-only service or an Irish-language commissioning agency for RTE.
Mr Donncha O hEallaithe, writing in the current issue of the Sligo-based magazine Force 10, says audiences for Irish-language programmes on Teilifis na Gaeilge rarely go above 10,000.
He claims that the hundreds of thousands of viewers who tune into the channel every night actually watch English-language programmes such as Euronews and All Ireland Gold. Irish-language programmes such Eire Neodrach, re-shown later on RTE, attract audiences of up to 150,000.
He says more than 100,000 people watch Nuacht on RTE at 5.20 p.m., whereas Nuacht TnaG can only get a tenth of that audience at the "more convenient time" of 10 p.m.
Mr O hEallaithe, a veteran Gaeltacht activist, says that despite the audience for TnaG's Irish-language programmes being what one would expect for a Gaeltacht community TV service the national Irish-language channel "has consistently attempted to avoid a Gaeltacht focus in the programmes it commissions".
He says that after almost two years of trying to attract Dublin viewers "the evidence would suggest that the east-coasters are not particularly interested".
Mr O hEallaithe suggests one of two courses of action. He would prefer those in charge to admit their mistake and "face the reality that there is little national demand for Irish-language programmes on a separate TV channel.
"Instead of trying to do what RTE was doing well but not enough of, TnaG should reinvent itself as Teilifis na Gaeltachta and attempt to satisfy the demand in the Gaeltacht for community TV in Irish." He accepts that this is unlikely to occur.
The "only other logical solution" was to allow TnaG "to continue to function as an independent commissioning agency for Irish-language programmes, funded directly by the Government, as TnaG is at present, and for the programmes so commissioned to be broadcast on RTE or Network 2 at suitable times".
He suggests that the channel now dedicated to TnaG could then become RTE's sports channel. "After all, is it not for sport that most people watch TnaG at present?"
A spokesman for Teilifis na Gaeilge, Mr Padhraic O Ciardha, said yesterday that in a short time the channel had established its own distinctive national identity, so much so that a recent marketing survey showed that it had "over 90 per cent recognition as a brand nationwide".
It had strong viewer loyalty in Gaeltacht areas and at the same time its ratings compared favourably with home-produced programmes in English on tv3.
article was based on an "inaccurate consideration" of how TnaG had been set up. The demand for a Gaeltacht TV service had been only one element in the "broad church" which had campaigned for an Irish-language channel.