Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I worry about the situation we are in now. I would describe RTÉ as a ship that has run aground and nobody seems to be able to get it back onto the water where it needs to be. Time is of the essence, as we all know, and it is running out. On the political side, there has been a lot of finger-pointing at many of the witnesses. However, I want to refer to something I said at the most recent meeting of the committee and about which I feel strongly. Around 2002, Mr. Cathal Goan and Mr. Bob Collins were the people in charge. They went to the new Government, including the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the then Minister with responsibility for communications, Dermot Ahern, seeking a bailout of €20 million, which was a significant amount at the time. There was concern within the relevant Department at that time. The Minister sent his people into RTÉ. He said at the time that RTÉ was in a shambles. If I recall correctly, he said there were people on the payroll who were not in RTÉ. That is shocking and outrageous. I know it is 21 years later but it seems that things have not improved very much. We can assign a lot of blame to the people before the committee today but things have been going wrong at RTÉ for a long time. We are now at a critical juncture.

I come from a broadcasting background. I spent many years broadcasting, producing and presenting for local audio. I also did some work with TG4 and Irish TV before it failed. I have an enormous interest in public broadcasting. I love broadcasting and want RTÉ to prevail. It is important that RTÉ prevails. In the political system, there are many elections coming up and we need to steady the RTÉ ship to ensure it is in a good place. It is obviously in everybody's interests to come clean. It is up to the politicians and the political system, if they get the answers, to put the necessary funding into RTÉ. I wish everybody well.