Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Does Mr. Griffin think he should have a service level agreement in place? He is handing over taxpayers' money. Should he have a service level agreement? If he does not think so we certainly think so. We are here every week of the year when publicly funded Government Departments hand over substantial funds to third parties on the basis of work being carried out. We would expect a public service level agreement to be in place and I am shocked to hear that.

Regarding the Deputy's first question on whether we can bring in RTÉ, I have in front of me on my iPhone RTÉ's summary financial highlights for 2016 from its financial statements. Its commercial revenue in 2016 was €158.2 million and licence fee revenue was €179.1 million, giving a total income of €337.3 million. The majority of RTÉ's income comes directly through the Department so it is unusual. Up to now, we have always taken the view that commercial semi-State bodies, such as ESB and others, have a large amount of commercial revenue, but it is clear to me that the majority of RTÉ's funding comes directly from the Department.

An organisation that gets the majority of its funding through the Vote of the Department should be answerable to this. Since the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment has no service level agreement in place, I think RTÉ might have to answer to us because it has not provided a service level agreement to date. The 2016 figures are in line with 2015. This is an organisation which is substantially funded directly through Mr. Griffin's Department.