Mr. Kevin Bakhurst:

I should start by saying in both cases, this is part of a holistic strategy. We said we would not come to this committee and ask for €300 million to invest in the buildings that we would not potentially need. That is the figure we would need if we were to renovate all buildings on the site in order to do those programmes on-site. In the end, there was no choice about moving some of those big programmes off-site if we are not going to spend that kind of money on the infrastructure there.

The answer is that we said to both staff and in the strategy, that we will be moving those two programmes off-site at some point over the five years. They will be made in studios in and around Dublin. We have not settled on what exactly the arrangement will be. We said it the other day at the town hall and subsequently that we need to find out what the best model is. On "Fair City", for example, we did not want to start talking to the independents until we had first made a decision and then until we had told the staff and cast about it. We did not want it leaking out, as it so often does. I think the staff understood that.

In respect of audiences, it is important to say that "Fair City", for example, is critical to RTÉ. It is one of those unique programmes that performs well on RTÉ One and the RTÉ player. "Fair City" on its own, drives approximately 5% of the audience on the RTÉ player currently. It delivers for us and for audiences across platforms. Ms O'Connor and I met the "Fair City" cast last week straight after the announcement. They were on a day off, but approximately 30 people came in. We talked through why we were doing this, what the plans were and said that we would keep them fully involved and consulted throughout the process, which we will do. We also stated that we were ambitious for the programme. If there is a bespoke studio and lot for the programme, and if it is potentially being done with an independent, it is possible to sell it to other broadcasters and invest more money in it for production and so on. English language soaps do quite well. We are committed to the programme, and the audience may end up getting a better product in the long run.

It is different for "The Late Late Show". There is a much smaller team working on it and who rotate through it. There is the operations team in the studio, and a smaller production team also. Again, we will end up with a bigger studio that is able to accommodate more people for "The Late Late Show" and for "The Late Late Toy Show", which will be welcome. Audiences will get a better product, because that studio is too small and quite old. We have not invested in it enough over the years and the crew do an incredible job, against the odds, in making the show look great.