Ms Dee Forbes:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. On the issue of funding, it is well known that we have issues around funding.

It is a problem for us at RTÉ to really invest in content. It is something we will continue to debate and discuss both here and externally.

As for Operation Transformation, funding comes from the Department of Health for that programme, for instance. It has been a supporter of that programme from the early days. As there are ways we can work with Departments to make programmes in that vein, we can certainly look at things like that.

The relationship with Met Éireann is hugely important to us and is one that is evolving. The role to date has been very much around the weather forecast, and we have discussed among ourselves how we need to evolve that relationship into providing and working with Met Éireann as to how together we can bring more information to the public, particularly on climate change. This is something that we are currently working on and the members will begin to see its outcomes.

We must be very mindful of weather forecasts and information around climate change. Both groups here probably believe that the weather forecast is not the place to have detailed information on climate change. We are working on how we can create a slot or place, whether it is seasonal or monthly, to put more information out on this. People will see more of this coming from us.

Over recent months we have developed a partnership with several universities that has enabled us to put together an online forum called Brainstorm, which is at rte.ie/eile/brainstorm, which features a whole range of articles put together by various academics. Many of those articles relate to and discuss climate change. There are ways other than television that we need to explore, whether with third parties such as academic institutions or with Met Éireann where we can provide information. This is an area on which we are actively working.