Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is RTÉ knowingly incurring losses in the way that the barter account now operates? From what I have learned in the past 12 months or so, typically when advertising space is sold through barter agencies, it is like a fire sale. The space needs to be filled at a few days' notice so it is sold at a discount. We know from last year that when a barter agency sells the advertising space, RTÉ gets a 50-50 split between cash and credit. The credit was the bit that was being used to buy the flip-flops and all that stuff. As per page 3 of appendix A that Mr. Bakhurst gave us earlier, it looks to me as if RTÉ is not using the credit at all. It is simply being converted into cash every month.