Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best on time. I am watching the clock. I welcome everybody this morning. I am pleased that we found time for this session. I know we are going to talk a lot about the licence fee and the justification for it. I am very proud of the fact that we have a publicly funded national broadcaster. That is incredibly important. We are all trying to reach a sustainable long-term approach for RTÉ. In other countries we have seen a state-supported free media as a target to be undermined and de-funded. The only people that suits is populists, conspiracy theorists and the far right. Any questions I ask in the next few minutes are to be viewed within that context.

Could I take it from Ms Forbes's statement today that RTÉ will not be publishing information on the gender pay gap in the foreseeable future until the Bill is passed by the Government. The reason I ask is that the National Union of Journalists asked for that information in February 2021 and RTÉ said in June last year that it would not be providing it. Is there any reason RTÉ has not provided it, considering that groups like An Post have not only provided it but closed the gap? There was a reference to 4%. Is that number from 2018?