Ms Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin:

I thank the Deputy for acknowledging the work we do. According to the Reuters report yesterday, our rating has gone up year on year as a trusted news source. Last year, we had to make some difficult decisions to our existing content because of the commercial situation we were in. We do not want to reduce our public service broadcasting content. We are committed to it but it is expensive to deliver. We already produce a lot of additionality outside of what is mandated. To push that further and add more bulletins, current affairs content, etc., would put a real strain on a system that is already very tight. We already had to make difficult decisions last year when we reduced our “Tonight Show” output, which also resulted in job losses.