Ms Teresa Hannick:

I totally agree with Ms O'Kelly. We are all led to believe that outsourcing in the private sector is best in everything. For example, people talk about how the health services would be great if a big business mogul ran it like a business. I think outsourcing is a way to move figures around on a balance sheet and helps the share price but it helps nothing else. There is concern within the industry regarding all that talent going out and being out there. History shows that when any big high-level chief executives or management makes decisions or companies go wrong, and one can think of all the scandals across the world, it is always the ordinary worker at the bottom who pays and that is the belief here again. I believe there is a responsibility on the Government, and every Department, to look at every contract, process or whatever and ensure governance is being done correctly.

What is the rationale? The rationale should not be just on a commercial basis to sell out jobs or get rid of jobs. We believe that RTÉ has very important cultural and artistic roles to play in society. To see jobs being downgraded, and the possibility of a future being downgraded, is incomprehensible but it does seem that this is the way to privatisation. I do not want to say it is Machiavellian but is very hard not to believe there is a desire out there to privatise RTÉ and sell it off to the highest bidder.