Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Peterman for her opening statement. I now invite members to indicate if they want to ask questions. We have limited time today so I propose that we take just five minutes for questions and answers. I ask members and our witnesses to be as succinct as possible in their questions and answers. If I may go first, Ms Peterman, my committee colleague, Deputy O'Rourke mentioned last week this tendency in journalism to lean into the "Punch and Judy" style of politics. This leads to the question of the chase for ratings which I think affects some programming decisions. I will call out certain programmes on RTÉ "Liveline", "Drivetime" and "Prime Time". While all three feature climate to some degree or other they have a tendency to polarise and divide.

That might be defended on the basis that a debate is needed on particular policies, but if the overall effect is resistance to climate action, then it is a failure of our public service broadcasting. Will the witnesses respond to that? I will then have other questions.