David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This relates to an arrangement, which I have raised previously, regarding top presenters who can set up companies for the purpose of paying a portion of salary as corporation tax and not as income tax. The issue was examined in other areas of the public sector in the past where there was a mix of public and private. It is timely it has come up today given the announcement by the director general of RTÉ that there will a 15% pay cut for these top presenters, which most people will welcome. The Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment is the first port of call for the director general. We have examined this issue in the past and established that more than 50% of RTÉ’s funding comes from the taxpayer.

Given that significant pay cuts, voluntary redundancies and the closure of services in Limerick and elsewhere are to take place at RTÉ, it might be an issue that we would want to examine because when the Accounting Officer appears, they cannot answer questions on those issues. They can only answer for the money that is transferred from the Department to RTÉ. I appreciate we have a heavy workload and that the sectoral committee will examine this but it might be something we could also consider. This correspondence relates to an article in The Sunday Business Post that put a focus on these types of schemes, which are not available to the vast majority of workers. I was seeking that we write to RTÉ to ask what is the practice. Let us establish the facts because we do not want to be unfair to anybody but let us find out how it works and how many staff members are involved in this practice. I imagine it is people at the very top. I doubt very much it is anybody earning less than €40,000 a year. I want to get a sense of how widespread the practice is. I imagine it involves a small number of staff, most likely the highest paid. We should establish how it works and why RTÉ engages in it. If we could get a note on it from the organisation, we could take it from there, if that is acceptable.