Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for joining us again this week. I know how difficult this has been for everyone on a personal level. RTÉ's mission statement describes an ambition to achieve what is described as "one RTÉ", one collaborative team working in the same direction to serve the needs of the public in regard to public service broadcasting. There is not one RTÉ. There are two RTÉs. That, for me, is one of the most stark outcomes from all of our engagement this week and last week and indeed the witnesses' engagement with the Committee of Public Accounts. There is an RTÉ where people are paid exceptionally generous salaries, where people are given guarantees that, irrespective of the economic trials and tribulations of RTÉ and indeed of the nation, their pay is not going to be cut. There is an RTÉ, and there may perhaps be a commercial reality behind it, where members of staff attend concerts, go to golf outings and travel around the world to rugby matches. Then there is the RTÉ of the people trying to keep the show on the road in regard to the public service broadcasting remit. These are the researchers, reporters and technicians, all of whom were required to take significant pay cuts and were devoid of the resources necessary, I would argue, to do their jobs well. The good ship RTÉ seems to have a set of people on the bridge living a reasonably lavish lifestyle and then the galley slaves down below, pulling the oars, trying to keep the show on the road in terms of honouring RTÉ's remit to the public and to its licence payers.

I would like to ask, initially, of Ms Doherty or Ms Ní Raghallaigh where is the priority? They seem to be undermining and cutting resources to the very people who are charged with delivering on RTÉ's remit, namely, those journalists, technicians, staff and researchers, yet at the same time, there seems to be no attempt made to cut back on the significant expenses around the commercial wing of the organisation. Who is serving who? Ultimately, where does the priority lie in regard to being able to allocate resources? Has the pendulum swung too much in the direction of the commercial life of RTÉ to the detriment of its public service broadcasting remit?