Mr. Kevin Bakhurst:

They have been appearing on it regularly in the past two weeks. It depends on the issues that come up for discussion on the programme. It is trying to do current affairs in a slightly different way from the “Prime Time” programme. Some programmes do not feature any politician, while others are much more politically focused. I know that for several weeks the programme has made a bid for an interview with the leader of Fianna Fáil. It has been agreed that he will appear on it at some point and we are just waiting to be told by Fianna Fáil when he will appear.

The point about Deputy Robert Troy’s child care policy document and the work he had done on it was made to me afterwards. Mr. David Nally might go into it in some detail. It is dialogue that is useful for me to have with the parties across the piece. I was not aware of the detail of the work Deputy Robert Troy had done on the issue of child care.

It is useful that this can feed into news and current affairs. I am sure people in the party will be more aware of the detailed work he has done than I was. That has now fed into me and will feed into future discussions about child care. It is very useful when we have Deputies or other politicians who have a very specific area they have been interested in. We should be aware of this.

As for the percentage of current affairs done outside Dublin, this is something we have discussions about all the time. I did think the farming accidents programme was very good and it is good to get David McCullagh out to present from there. There are cost implications when we do it, to be fair, because we have to use an outside broadcasting unit. We have the studio sitting at base and if we do not use it so much that is an element. We are very well aware and have had a number of reports on "Prime Time" and "Claire Byrne Live" from around the country. The Deputy is right that this is something we have to be very conscious of. The only thing I would say is that there are a lot of people in RTE who do not come from Dublin and are very good advocates for coverage around the country - this can be seen in the line-up here today.

If there are follow-up questions I am happy to take them, otherwise I will hand over to Mr. David Nally now to deal with some of the other points.