Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that, but there is an attitude issue here as well. By that I am referring to the handout approach. RTÉ was before the committee earlier in the year, before the scandals happened in the summer. Its managers defended Toy Show The Musicalon the basis that they appeared shortly after we had representatives from the arts community. They said we should not be questioning them on Toy Show The Musical as they were doing what we asked them to do and supporting the arts. A failure on a commercial level of over €2 million was defended on the basis that sure RTÉ was supporting the arts. One can call it investment in the arts or a colossal commercial cock-up. I know what I would call it. RTÉ managers would not come in here now with that attitude, or at least I would hope not. Call it what one likes, they ended up coming in here with the hand out looking for us to bail them out. We now have a third Grant Thornton report into it as a result. Should there be a threshold with those decisions such that activities in that sphere are referred to the Minister of the day?