Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not asking the Minister about that. As I said, there has been ongoing and persistent discrimination against female people who work in RTÉ. One took a court case which cost €1.4 million. This did not cost RTÉ but cost the taxpayer, as I pointed out at the time.

I would like to speak about the extent of the baked and naked fraud which has gone on with respect of bogus employment. RTÉ has a contingency, and my understanding of the figures may be different from what Deputy Griffin knows. Perhaps it may be more. It is four times the €1.4 million which RTÉ had paid out. It had settlements which could be €6 million. How much more money is involved? The public has no confidence in any semblance of fairness or respect for the junior staff or middle management in RTÉ. Now it is coming back looking for this kind of money. I would not give it any funding whatsoever until it comes clean and apologises. It has not apologised in a correct way, which shows that it understands the need for a proper governance structure and for respect. We can see that some very good programmes, such as “RTÉ Investigates”, are made. How will “Prime Time” investigate RTÉ? I acknowledge that all the journalists in RTÉ, including the senior journalists, have been very good at handling this debacle since it started but who will investigate the “Prime Time” investigators? Who is going to get to the bottom of the shabby, disgraceful and illegal practices which have gone on there, including the shabby and totally unacceptable treatment of female staff, some of whom were forced to go to the courts? When I raised that issue with senior management, I was treated with disdain. I complimented the two ladies on reaching the top in RTÉ but I could not understand how there could be such disrespect for other female staff.