David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Silence often speaks for itself when people cannot answer questions because if there was a logical and fair reason as to why this is the case, then it would be given but I have not been given one. I accept that Ms Cusack and Ms Forbes are committed to reviewing these issues and I have no reason to doubt their sincerity but there is a problem. Ms Cusack has not explained why one of these contractors on €400,000 who employs an agent can have access to her with the agent negotiating on behalf of him or her, yet other contractors do not have such access. I spoke to one of the more high profile people before the meeting. Mr. Jennings outlined why these presenters are so valuable and why are paid so much. There is competition and so on. He rightly mentioned that their producers and researchers are equally important. I have spoken to some of them who work on these high profile programmes. They are on these contracts but they are not happy and they are also concerned. These issues affect all of them as well.