Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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The same people are invited on radio programmes all the time. They are all so close to the centre, they are balancing on the edge of a knife. It is a case of groupthink, although there is some very good public sector broadcasting on RTE. "Prime Time" tends to be good and there are good presenters, including Claire Byrne, Miriam O'Callaghan and David McCullough. However, some of the broadcasts at the weekend are shocking and feature the same stuffy heads all the time. This needs to change because citizens are paying for it. There are individuals who are willing to appear on these programmes and certain organisations which never receive a call to feature on it. There are people who are not members of political parties or not directly involved in politics who would be very good on radio. The net is not cast much further than Donnybrook and Dublin 4 in general, which means we have a middle and upper class groupthink.

If bogus self-employment is the barrier that is preventing us from addressing high pay levels in RTE, can anything be done to remove it? Will the Minister or his officials indicate if we can address this issue? We should not have to pay people €400,000 each year to talk to someone on the telephone for one hour each day. I do not see the logic in that. The gender pay gap should have ended yesterday.

Does public service broadcasting receive sufficient funding and are its finances sustainable for the next couple of years? Will the Minister consider how to spread the net wider in collecting the licence fee, rather than increasing it given that to do so would impact disproportionately on low income households and people who got up early this morning to make beds in hotels and work in factories, many for €9.25 per hour? I do not want to place another burden on this group and I hope the Minister does not want to do so either.