David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I do not question what the organisation or Ms O'Keeffe has done in the past. I have listened to Ms Forbes on a number of occasions respond to questions and many people have asked questions about whether the savings can be achieved. We have a job to ask questions, such as whether the €60 million in savings can be achieved, but all I have received is a one-page document with no costings or line items. Broad, general headings do not cut it. It is not good enough that the detail was not given to us before the meeting. I ask that RTÉ forward to the committee, which is the line committee to which RTÉ is answerable, a bit more detail on how the €60 million in savings will be achieved. If some issues are commercially sensitive, that is fine. Staff at RTÉ will potentially lose their jobs, there are questions as to whether the top presenters will take the proposed 15% pay cut and there are concerns about Lyric FM. A presentation was made at Leinster House about people who have settled in Limerick with their families but will have to move. I accept that these are challenging times and that this is not a position that RTÉ wants to be in. While I support the allocation of additional funding to RTÉ and public broadcasting, I do not like being given a plan with no specifics and being told, in general terms, that the savings will be achieved. I would like to be provided with a bit more than one page and hope that following the meeting, our guests will provide us with a bit more detail than what we have been given.