Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Both the Chairman and Deputy Murphy have touched on a number questions that are outstanding.

It would be incredibly useful for us to invite RTE to return to the committee to analyse some of these matters further. We belatedly know that RTE has paid €1.22 million in respect of what were essentially - to call a spade a spade - bogus employment practices. It would be useful for this committee to get a breakdown of the type of staff involved, the levels of wages, and whether this reflected some of the higher earners we see in the reports, or whether it specifically related to lower paid individuals. The RTE report indicates that there will be no payments to the Department of Social Protection, that the Revenue Commissioners have responsibility for the collection of taxes and that the payments that were made by RTE include PRSI. It would be helpful to get clarification from the Department of Social Protection as to whether it is also its view that the Revenue Commissioners have recouped any funds due to them.

Questions continue to arise in regard to the use of contracts as opposed to direct employment processes, and in that vein it is important we invite RTE to come before the committee again. Finally, I support Deputy Murphy's request that we get a realistic figure for legal costs.