Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thank you so much.

We come now to my speaking slot and my opportunity to ask a few questions. This is not a movie review forum, but I just want to point out that I thought "An Cailín Ciúin" was a far superior movie to "The Banshees of Inisherin". These are the two movies that are constantly being referenced here. I will get into trouble, if I go any further. We will have that debate in private, maybe later.

Rather than asking a question at the start, I would like to make a comment in relation to the licence fee, licence collection and the funding mechanism. There is a missed opportunity here. It is a great shame that, once again, the can is being kicked down the road because in the end everyone will be losers unless we address this. We have talked here a lot about sustainability. From many, particularly the television stations, we have heard some really good figures in terms of the player in terms of different programmes and different items on the different television stations but we have also heard some serious concerns about sustainability of public broadcasting. It is a difficult issue, politically. It is a tough one to grab by the neck and deal with, but we have to deal with it because, from what I am hearing here in the feedback from different witnesses' statements and answers to questions, it is not only those who benefit from public funding who will lose out. It will also impact those who do not benefit from public funding. We need to tackle that. When we were discussing the Future of Media Commission, we spent, I would imagine, the majority of the time dealing with that very issue - the licence fee and funding - and it is the one issue that we did not deal with when it came to it. I wanted to make that broad point at the start.

I suppose most questions have been asked, but I have questions for the television station representatives here - RTÉ, TG4, community television and Virgin Media. Most have a healthy social media following, particularly on Instagram. RTÉ and the Virgin Media have staggering figures when it comes to Instagram following, etc. Is there a way or have they found a way to monetise that? Is it possible? Are the numbers of visitors to their social media big enough to be able to monetise that because individuals have successfully monetised social media where they have a big following? As I said, in the stations' cases, the figures are really healthy. Is monetising something that they can do or is it something that would be only a sticking plaster in terms of revenue income?