Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Curran and his management team for appearing before the committee. With the imminent change from the television licence to whatever broadcasting charge will be implemented, the nature of the relationship of the public will change with that. There was some cover for those who chose not to pay the €160. They could kick the television out the window and say they would not watch it anymore. That is fine but that will not happen anymore. It becomes a kind of consumer base to a taxpayer. That is a different relationship and requires different scrutiny.

With that in mind, there is much focus on salaries and so on. I would prefer to look at value for money, where the money goes and how it is spent. Does the consumer-taxpayer, or something similar to a taxpayer, get value for money and what they require from RTE?

We have listened to the testimony about many of the reductions which have taken place and they are quite severe. That is accepted. In terms of the reduction in staff numbers, how many staff were full-time, part-time and on contract? Were there any compulsory redundancies? If there was not, are compulsory redundancies an option for management? On the payroll costs, relative to total costs, the presentation mentioned €153 million out of €353 million. How does that compare with similar broadcasters in terms of the ratio of payroll to other costs?

The witnesses said they were working in a very challenging commercial environment in regard to advertising. Has RTE reduced advertising rates? I am not sure how it charges for advertising, whether it is per minute or per second.

I have some concerns about the PricewaterhouseCoopers report. When people come up with a report and say it is broadly positive, people say: "Well they would say that". RTE has spent quite a lot of time advertising RTE in respect of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report. Has there been a cost evaluation of that element of advertising? I do not want to get into a debate on whether that is good or bad. If it was a corporate decision taken by RTE, what is the value of that?

The witnesses said there were 5,000 hours of home produced broadcasting, which is a huge amount and which is what we are talking about here in terms of what RTE does. Has there been any assessment carried out on the price per hour that cost? If there has been, how do we compare internationally, if there are comparisons? I accept the point made about figures from other commercial stations but do we have figures for international comparisons?

To touch on the top ten salaries, I note there have been significant reductions in many of the contracts of some of the employees who are in this top ten. Have there been variations in their responsibilities? Are they doing more for less, less for less or significantly more for less? As public representatives, we spend a lot of time in our cars and we listen to RTE radio, in particular current affairs programmes. Some of the presenters or personalities who do not appear in the top ten are extremely capable and are very entertaining and competent. I would suggest that, in many cases, they are better ambassadors for RTE. It would not be the worst thing in the world to take a greater punt on those personalities who do not feature in the top ten. They are quite effective when it comes to incisive broadcasting or entertaining broadcasting, in particular.

I get exasperated when I see chat show hosts interviewing chat show hosts. It is a bit of a merry-go-round between organisations. One of the best interviews was done with a young man from Blennerville, Mr. Donal Walsh, who sadly passed away. That was a particularly challenging piece of work and I thought it was public service at its best. I would like to see more of that type of work, the launch of RTE junior and the work with the RTE archives rather than who is in Dublin with the next book deal or the next film, although I know that needs to be done. Challenging the audience is broadcasting at its very best and it is what RTE does best.

If I was asked, I would like to see much more of this rather than Michael Parkinson or Graham Norton again on RTE. Perhaps I am cynical about it, but what RTE does best is the type of interview Mr. O'Connor did with Mr. Donal Walsh. Work like that is what it does best and that should be the focus.