Mr. Peter Finnegan:

First, 2024 was a general election year. In doing our estimates, we would make full provision for the full 12 months. Effectively, there were two months of 2024 where broadcast services were not happening. That would be the main reason. I might take the Deputy down through the main figures, if that is helpful.

On the broadcast contract, there are four main headings under which expenditure is incurred. The first is management and administration fees. The spend on those in 2024 was €492,000. Second is maintenance and technical fees. The spend there was €447,190. The third is operation and production fees, which were €324,720. They are all fixed fees under the contract, regardless of the level of activity. The total of those fees came to €1,263,910. In addition to that, there are content production fees. Content production was €522,000. That is a variable figure based on the number of hours and with a general election, there would be fewer hours than in a normal year.

In addition, there are other elements in the broadcast budget that are kind of outside of the contract.

In 2024, we replaced some critical hardware, so that cost €1.78 million. There was some work done on what is called the legacy PetaSite. The PetaSite is the storage unit used to store all of the broadcast footage. That cost €61,000. There are other costs then. The main ones would be carriage and paths. That is effectively the fees we pay to Sky and Saorview to broadcast the channel. That cost €785,000.