With Big Brother in its ninth season and TV execs constantly scrambling to think of newer, and more profitable ideas for reality TV (and coming up with the opposite), it may be a surprise to you that Galway City Council's meetings could soon be broadcast live online.

The proposal, made by Green Party Councillor Niall Ó Brolcháin, would involve a live webcast of council meetings and a searchable archive. The proposal was partly aimed at publicly identifying the council's regular troublemakers.

And it's not just Cllr Ó Brolcháin who favours this idea. The sessions of the Oireachtas are also to be televised. The question is, do you really want to see them?

'Oireachtas TV' has been undergoing a trial period, for those participating in the Digital Terrestrial Television trial in Dublin. It's set to become a reality with the enactment of a new Broadcasting Bill and RTÉ's changeover to digital service, which has a deadline of 2012.

However, even the most slavish of political sleeveens has their doubts about this one. Oireachtas Report, the current output of Dáil and Seanad Eireann, is less than riveting viewing. For a political junkie, it can have its golden moments, but with these often reproduced on news broadcasts, it's just not necessary to wait up until the wee hours for the drama that is our legislature.

While propping your eyes open with sticks is one way of staying awake before (and during) the show, poking your eyes with sticks can be preferable to watching a bored politician reading a prepared speech like a child reciting a poem in a language he doesn't understand.

Before the Lisbon Referendum, there was an undercurrent of what you might call 'active apathy'. Voters made it clear that they elect politicians to do things for them and they should get on with it without bothering the rest of us.

A lot of people would call that an irresponsible attitude to society. And they're probably right. But it's very common.

Perhaps Oireachtas TV and Council Chat will provide us with a new window into politics and legislation. Or perhaps, as with Big Brother 9, most people will switch over to the Big Big Movie. Either way, the move presents an opportunity for public representatives. But, like Big Brother, Eviction Day is always approaching – and without subjective editing, for once the truth will out.

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