David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Can I make one final observation? One of those very senior people I mentioned - one of those people the witness was quick to praise who is a producer on one of the top programmes and who is on one of these contracts - said to me when I spoke to them yesterday that if we do not address this issue, the RTÉ canteen will continue to look like a sample of people from Dublin 4 and will be not reflective of society. The reason is that if a person is offered one of these contracts on less than €30,000 a year, or something in that territory, one has to pay rent costs or mortgage costs, live in Dublin, etc. There is a particular type of person who is attracted to those jobs and it might be somebody who comes from a very wealthy background and whose parents can subsidise him or her as opposed to people from other backgrounds. The person I spoke to would be very respected within the organisation and a very public person. There seems to be an issue and that is why I raised the issue of class, which is important to me, and that the public broadcaster is not seen as reflective of one class of society, but of society in general. I welcome the fact that this is being reviewed, but I ask Ms Forbes, who certainly seems to be pioneering - I really commend her on the gender pay issue and some of the other work that is being done - that she look at this if possible.

I completely agree with the Cathaoirleach on Irish productions and the value of these and the spin-off from them. I would encourage more of that because it is of real benefit in terms of keeping talent here, notwithstanding the cheaper costs of getting in some of the American franchise programmes, which can attractive to do and which may be easier, and that it is more expensive and more difficult to hone domestic talent. I commend the director-general on that because it is very good.