Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegates from RTE. It is a good day for them to be here. I have a couple of questions. I was expecting this session to be benign enough, going through the deficiencies in RTE and its plans for the future. The director general lamented that one of RTE's leading lights left the broadcaster last year but I contend the sky did not fall in. RTE has survived after the individual's departure. I have been saying constantly over recent years that the fees RTE is paying to some presenters are outrageous and without justification. There are plenty of others with the same talent whom RTE is not recruiting. This has been shown quite clearly over the past eight or nine months. It is a matter of which RTE needs to be mindful. It challenges to the core the manner in which it has conducted its business over the past 15 years or more.

I have a few questions based on the presentation. Reference was made to defamation law and likely changes thereto. What changes is RTE hoping for, and what does it envisage? What is RTE's vision for 2FM? What is its future?

A constant criticism concerns the number of RTE staff who attend high-profile events overseas. At such events, there tends to be one presenter for the morning news bulletin and another for the evening bulletin. A constant issue that arises concerns the degree to which RTE is efficient. I note that there were considerable reductions between 2008 and 2013, yet RTE has still continued as the national broadcaster. This demonstrates quite clearly that there were massive inefficiencies. Does RTE believe it is as efficient a national broadcaster as possible?

The presentation referred to the broadcasting charge. If the charge is to result in increased revenue, it should be distributed among the community-based radio stations. Not as much should go to RTE as might have been going to it in the past. These are my main issues.

If RTE is true to what it stated in its presentation, it should represent every sector, both urban and rural. Its challenge is to ensure balanced coverage of what is happening in the regions in addition to the capital rather than just having half-hour programmes on the regions a couple of times per week. It really needs to address this. There is competition in the regions. Statistics on listenership in the regions show that listeners are far more likely to listen to local radio stations during the day than to RTE stations. This presents a challenge. Perhaps the delegates will address these issues.