Ms Dee Forbes:

I thank the Deputy for his comments. They are much appreciated. On 2020, as the Deputy is probably aware our accounts have not yet been audited or signed off by our board. Having said that, to give the Deputy an indication I can say that last year was an incredible year on many levels, whether it was simply keeping everything going and keeping the country going or the huge shifts we saw in how we work as an organisation. On the one hand, our expenditure was less than expected. Why was that? Some of the big sporting events did not happen. The Olympics and the UEFA European Championship were cancelled and the GAA season, along with a huge amount of other sporting activity, was curtailed. However, some of those events were deferred and were not cancelled completely and we are hoping some of them will happen this year. Likewise, a lot of production could not happen. We had to stand down "Fair City" for many months while we physically could not produce it. The sector, particularly in the first lockdown, was not able to produce. We did not fulfil our commitment to the independent sector last year because it was not possible as it was not able to produce. Our expenditure was lower than expected but our revenue was also lower than expected, even though as the country opened up we got a bounce and revenue improved. All in all, when our accounts come to pass - and it was reported recently in The Irish Times- we will report a surplus in 2020. That was an unreal year, however, and we have to look at Covid over a two-year cycle because a lot of the reason we were able to do better than was anticipated was the deferral of a lot of cost but that cost will come back in.