Mr. Noel Curran:

It puts us at an absolute serious disadvantage. The broadcaster in question has said on the record that when he was approached, his published fees were immediately quoted. The fact that we had published his fees meant that people knew exactly what to aim for. That is what he said. We are absolutely at a disadvantage in terms of access to funding across the board. That is why I made a point earlier about the debate on commercial operators receiving public funding. I am not speaking about the subsidiaries at a local level - I am speaking about people at managing director and other levels who need to realise it will be very difficult for them to get access to public funding without undergoing some of the strictures we undergo.

The managing director and other levels need to realise that it will be very difficult for them to get access to public funding without undergoing some of the strictures we do. We publish commitments every year in terms of hours of programming. An independent consultant comes in and says whether we have met those commitments. We have regular reviews in terms of efficiencies and have had two of them this year. We publish our top presenters' fees. If others are going to access public funding, I can only assume they will have to follow some of that. I have to yet to hear senior figures in either of the two big media companies who acknowledge that this will be the case saying that in return they would like some more public funding because they are prepared to fulfil those obligations.