Mr. Pádhraic Ó Ciardha:

I will try to be brief in two languages. Gabhaim buíochas leis an gcoiste as an gcuireadh teacht anseo. Tá sé go deas i gcónaí a bheith ag éisteacht le polaiteoirí ag caint faoi chúrsaí craolacháin. Níl an Bille mar atá sé foilsithe pléite ag bord TG4, mar sin níl aon tuairimí dochta cinnte le nochtadh agam. Tá tuairimí láidre ag bord TG4 faoin maoiniú a chuirtear ar fáil don chraolacháin poiblí agus cuirfidh mé iad sin i láthair i mBéarla faoi cheann soicind. Tá gá le rud éigin a dhéanamh. Níl sé soiléir dúinne mar bhainistíocht gurb é seo an rud is gá a dhéanamh ag an bpointe seo. Tá géarchéim ann. Tá gá le maoiniú ilbhliantúil, dóthanach, sásúil a leanas agus a bheas seasmhach. Níl seisean ar fáil faoi láthair.

We welcome any proposal that faces the crisis that is facing all the public service broadcasting on the island. There is a funding challenge for all of us, the smaller one is the bigger the challenge. We therefore welcome any proposals.

It was wonderful to hear all the great ideas that came forward at last Friday's forum. I congratulate the committee on organising it. We would be slightly agnostic on some of the proposals here. Continual slicing of the licence fee may sometimes seem to be a solution but I am not sure it is the robust multi-annual, viable long-term solution that is required for some of the challenges we face. I am not sure that making the carriage proposal obligatory will necessarily work to the advantage of small broadcasters such as our organisation. I have sat in a room negotiating with some of the major platform providers on key questions and it is not an easy conversation. Sometimes one has to be very agile in doing that. Would it be worth pursuing the idea of making such carriage fee voluntary rather than mandatory? There are bigger broadcasters than us in this room and perhaps the conversations are easier when they sit across the table from some of these multinational companies. I welcome any proposal that gives us more funding, obviously, I would be foolish not to. I would however be less than honest if I did not say that it is not easy for an organisation of the scale of TG4 to negotiate in any meaningful way about large sums of money without knowing that there is something else the big player can do to another part of its activities that may be to its detriment.

Sin a bhfuil le rá agam. Sílim gur iontach an rud é go bhfuil an Bille againn. Molaim an coiste and I look forward to hearing what the committee has to say.