Ms Dee Forbes:

I thank the Deputy for his comments. The independent sector is hugely important to us. We are a partner in the production and provision of Irish content to our audiences. That is the first thing. Last year was a particularly tough year for the sector because practically no production was possible during the first lockdown. We were producing here as an essential service but everybody was still getting to grips with protocols and how to produce in a safe environment, so the first lockdown was very difficult. As I said, we underspent our commitment so we have commissioned excess programming this year to try to make up for that shortfall. We have regular contact and dialogue with the sector and have commissioned significant content this year. We talk with Screen Producers Ireland, SPI, on a regular basis and constantly update it on where we are at. This year will be a challenge - it already is - and we are seeing some issues come our way even with mandatory hotel quarantine, for example. We have a production crew coming in from Belgium on an important Irish drama in June and it is proving a huge issue in terms of both cost and availability. We are not out of the woods yet but the important thing is our commitment to absolutely honour what we should be spending. It is also important to state that under the Broadcasting Act 2009 it is a requirement of RTÉ to spend that money and we have two years after the year in which we did not spend it to do so. If production reduces again this year we have to keep commissioning until we get to that level.