Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to focus my contribution on Lyric FM, as I am Deputy representing Limerick city and this is a huge concern in the area. It has been a good project in the city. When RTÉ brought Lyric FM to Limerick, it was seen as the national broadcaster reaching out to the regions. Now that RTÉ is retreating from that, the opposite is going to be perceived. It has not, as one can imagine, gone down well in the constituency.

I was really disappointed with Ms Forbes's answers to my colleague, Deputy Cullinane. If RTÉ has decided to move Lyric FM from Limerick, she must know how much savings it anticipates to make from that. Ms Forbes said she cannot tell us what the savings will be, even though she said the figures are with the Department. She would have understood that we were going to ask that question today, so it is perplexing to me as to why she cannot tell us that. RTÉ is moving Lyric FM from Limerick. What I have been led to believe, and Ms Forbes cannot tell us the amount of savings, is that RTÉ is going to split the station between Dublin and Cork. The concern we have is that RTÉ wants to get rid of Lyric FM by splitting it between two areas where it will not be as strong as it was in Limerick. How can RTÉ justify it being cheaper to run Lyric FM anywhere outside Limerick? I would imagine that Limerick was the cheapest place to run it from. I ask Ms Forbes to answer that question and to tell the committee what she anticipates the savings will be.