The consumer programme Streetwise is coming back, a different programme in all but name. It moves from Network 2 to RTE One, has a new producer (Niamh Walsh) and two new presenters (Emma Meagher-Neville and Oonagh Smith). The new 12-part series will, says Walsh, be "more contentious than the old programme, which was more magazine-style." Streetwise is also working in conjunction with the European Consumer Centre office, which deals specifically with everyday queries off the street about consumer matters.
"This series will," she adds, "be targeting a different audience." Since October, Streetwise has received several hundred responses from a public anxious to air their consumer grievances, all of which the programme put on its extensive database. It's these grievances and queries that the new series will be based on.
So what was top of the belly-ache list? Surprise, surprise, it's builders - and anything to do with the construction trade in general. "Why isn't there a building regulation authority?" Walsh wonders, along, apparently, with half the country. The other big consumer gripe is anything to do with cars.
"When you have it fixed for a problem, and then once you get it out of the garage, the same problem recurs. Or new cars that break down - what do you do then?" Walsh points out that we have long had a reputation for putting up with poor service and faulty goods, because we don't like complaining. Not any more, it would appear. "Irish people are beginning to stand up for themselves. They know their consumer rights." Part of the new series focuses on the public explaining what their consumer grievance is to camera. The era of the shy/ coy/ah-sure-it'll-do-the-way-it-is Irish is obviously ebbing. "We had no problem getting people to complain on air."
The problems aired in the series break down into eight different categories: health, beauty, travel, transport, house, home, food, and culture. Lest you might think this sounds like mainly female-orientated topics, think again. Walsh says most of the suggestions in these areas came from men.
"I had one man on to me demented about his washing machine. It had broken down, but he had a warranty so he was given another one. But they didn't give him a warranty the second time - so what's his position if it breaks down again?"
To give legal advice and hound policymakers on these problems, Streetwise has recruited two new presenters, each with a legal background. Solicitor Emma Meagher-Neville gave up her job at Matheson Ormsby Prentice in January to work on Streetwise.
"I heard about the job through word of mouth. I've always wanted to pursue a career in television, and this programme is launching me. I love the variety - no two days are the same."
Lawyer Oonagh Smith comes to the series with a strong broadcast journalism background, having worked with the BBC World Service and as a reporter on RTE's Five Seven Live, Morning Ireland and News at One.
In the first programme, Meagher-Neville challenges a computer company about its lack of customer care facilities. Smith pursues the vexed question of why we have to pay Vehicle Registration Tax in Ireland, when no other members of the European Union have to do so. Watch it to find out what Charlie McCreevy has to say to her.
So did they get any odd consumer grievances? "Oh, yes," Walsh says. "There was a woman who called us because she had answered an ad in the paper for a physic reading, and sent off the money in the post. The reading never arrived, and later, she noticed an ad for the same company in a British newspaper. But really, can you believe that people still send money through the post?"
Although they've had their own legal team doing a forensic examination of the programmes to make sure there's nothing libellous in the content, Walsh is keen to stress that, "We're not out to make sensational television, or out to shame people. We're about problem-solving. We just want to make the public more aware of their rights."
Streetwise starts at 8.30 p.m. on RTE 1, Thursday, April 27th.
