Ms Dee Forbes:

We commissioned the report in September 2017. It came on the back of a great deal of controversy stemming from the BBC. There was a perception within RTÉ that we might have a problem, which is why we commissioned the report. Instead of reacting and addressing individual issues, Ms Cusack and I took the view that we needed to understand whether our organisation had a problem and to get the facts right. It is an emotional and emotive subject. That is why we asked Mr. Kieran Mulvey to undertake a thorough report on role and gender equality across the organisation. We have the facts from it. We are doing well in terms of the national average, but we have room to improve and much work still to do on some aspects. The report gave us a benchmark against the national average. I will let Ms Cusack discuss some of what we are doing to address areas of concern.

It is worth pointing out that ours is an organisation that has been around for 50 plus years and that we have many issues that have been around for a long time. We are working through a number of them systematically. We began with a review of role and gender equality. On the back of it, I committed to undertaking a contractor review. We are doing so. We are also committed to undertaking a grade review. As a legacy, there are more than 160 grades within RTÉ. We cannot continue with that number. We are systematically working through some of the issues to give ourselves the proper facts with which to work.

I ask Ms Cusack to showcase what we are doing on the back of the gender equality report.