Ms Dee Forbes:

I will move through the questions asked by the Deputy. He asked about the orchestras. We are in the midst of a follow-up. Again, where we are with them is indicative of our overall position. I commissioned an independent person, Ms Helen Bolton, from the BBC to look at the position we were facing and come back to the organisation with a view on how we could sustain two orchestras in the future. She came back with a thorough review of the need for orchestral provision in this country and to sustain two orchestras. She made it clear that the system of funding was simply not sustainable. Her view was that the drain on RTÉ was significant and that to sustain two orchestras, something would have to be done. Her recommendation was that the concert orchestra should remain with RTÉ. Typically, in the old days of the radio orchestra, it would have been used in broadcasting. The view then was that the symphony orchestra should be taken out of RTÉ and either set up as an independent body or aligned with the National Concert Hall.

Since the report there has been much debate and discussion with the Department and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. It was recommended by both Departments that the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra should be aligned with the National Concert Hall. We are going through the mechanics of how that will happen. Importantly, it was also stated an extra €4 million would need to be allocated for the symphony orchestra to enable it to happen. All of that is under way. A working group is in play to look at how it will happen. Importantly, there is recognition on the part of everyone that we need to sustain the two orchestras. It will take some time to work through this. In the meantime, we are, of course, working closely with the orchestra, the National Concert Hall and both Departments to ensure the provision of orchestral services is maintained throughout this period. Considerable work is ongoing on that project.

Another area mentioned was investment in children's and local production. Our spend on children's programming has been severely curtailed in recent years. In 2008 we were spending €16 million on such programming, while in 2016 we spent €6.5 million. That is really not good, nor is it where a public service broadcaster should be. Again, we were faced with some difficult choices. In recent times we have been working differently with children's content in that we are commissioning all such content. We are working closely with the independent sector to ensure the content we are commissioning is coming from within the country. In particular, we are working with the animation sector which is so strong in this marketplace. We have been doing considerable work with it. That is where we have been focusing our efforts. Recently we appointed a new head of young people's broadcasting. She is working on her strategy to ensure we know where children are. The player will play a significant role in that regard. We need to recognise that children are consuming content differently. They need to see content when and where they want it. They are not defined by schedules. The new player will allow us to have a dedicated area for children that will be completely child-friendly. It will have parental controls, etc. Again, what we will see in this sector is a great deal of activity taking place on the player for children because that is where they are going. It is an evolving strategy but one in respect of which we are spending as much as we can on Irish content for our audience.

Reference was made to family-friendly working. Ms Cusack will address that question.