Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have just a couple of questions. A register of interests for, I believe, people on air was mentioned. Could I suggest that there should be a register of interests for everyone, including board and executive members? Even if someone is not on air, he or she can have significant influence over the expenditure of public moneys and, therefore, the question of conflicts of interest is important. Interests need to be registered and people need to acknowledge whether there are potential conflicts so that they can be seen transparently.

Ms Ní Raghallaigh may be aware of the questions I have been raising about issues in the film industry. We have heard from RTÉ workers of some poor employment conditions, for example, buy-out contracts for actors, writers and performers, the use of successive fixed-term contracts, bogus self-employment and so on. There are allegations within the wider film and audiovisual sector that the same things are happening there. Equity is waging a campaign and film crew have raised this matter. RTÉ is involved, as €40 million every year goes into drama and independent productions. I want to see that money going there, but if we look honestly in the aftermath of this, do questions now arise about similar disparities between people at the very top getting high producer fees and people on fairly poor conditions of remuneration, not getting their royalties and so on? Do these disparities now need to be examined seriously and acknowledged?