Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I need just 30 seconds. I welcome the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland delegation today. The statistics it provides are most revealing about the huge impact of local radio in this country over the past 24 years. There is great involvement between communities and local presenters as indicated by the huge response I hear on Kerry Radio where there is a great deal of interaction and communication with people texting in about the content of the programmes throughout the day. That demonstrates the connection between the communities and the radio stations across the whole spectrum - public affairs, sports and culture. The IBI gives a fair break to traditional music and country and western, which is particularly popular in rural Ireland.

One cannot justify RTE's situation. Our population is the same as that of Birmingham but the presenters in RTE command exorbitant wages, more luck to them. That is historical. We need a more equitable system. IBI is suffering massive losses in revenue with a 40% drop between 2008 and 2011. It will be interesting to see how it has fared over the past 12 or 15 months because unfortunately a lot of businesses are closing in many of our towns which must create a downward trend in IBI's revenue. We need a level playing pitch and new legislation must be expedited. I wish IBI well.