Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I thank the RTE representatives. I hope the other semi-State companies under the remit of this committee are watching, because they should be subject to the same level of scrutiny. I will be proposing that in the near future, particularly in view of the fact that one semi-State company recently made a €40 million loss but it pays its chief executive officer €400,000 per annum.

It would be remiss of us not to talk about the celebrity salaries. That is what interests people. Certainly that is what preoccupies the people in my constituency with regard to RTE, and I do not think I am representing a constituency that is completely different from all the others. I looked at the BBC's annual report recently. I am open to correction but that report states that the BBC has 19 staff who are paid more than £500,000. Britain's population is roughly 15 times greater than Ireland's and based on what I have read in the media recently about some of the celebrity salaries being paid here I would have thought that well over 100 people in the BBC would be paid more than £500,000. Mr. Curran said that RTE had paid its presenters too much. That is refreshing honesty, but does he think they are still being paid too much? The baseline is definitely too high. When one reduces something by 20% or 30%, it sounds like a huge percentage but the baseline was far too high. Deputy O'Mahony is correct that there was a fear they would leave if their salaries were cut. Realistically, however, where would they go and who would have them? To be honest, who could afford them? Certainly nobody in Ireland could.

With regard to editorial changes, particularly after the "Twittergate" incident, there was a move to re-brand and refresh "The Frontline" and call it "Prime Time" with an audience. However, when I watch it, it is still the same. RTE essentially just changed the logo. Somebody mentioned balance earlier. As I have often said previously, including to this committee, when one looks at the audience on "The Frontline" or "Prime Time", there are so many plants in it, it looks like a garden centre. Contrast the audience for "Prime Time" with the audience for BBC's "Question Time". There is a really impartial audience on the BBC programme, but it is not an impartial audience on "Prime Time". It is a hand-picked bunch of repeat performers. If one watches every week, one sees the same people appearing time and again. They are planted with loaded questions, invariably to try to land a punch on the unfortunate Government representative. That is anything but fair. Some people think that just because RTE re-brands and relaunches it, it will be better in some way but, to be honest, it is the very same. It is "The Frontline" with two presenters rather than one, as far as I am concerned.

This follows through in the radio programmes. If one is unfortunate enough to be in a car as often as politicians are and one is listening to talk radio, one might hear Anne from Kilkenny, for example, ring in and lacerate her local representative or the Government representative. There does not appear to be any clearance or checking to ensure that Anne from Kilkenny is a real person and not Mary from the press office of the main Opposition party, who is sitting in an office in Dublin texting, tweeting and ringing with loaded comments that are then broadcast and taken as fact.