Ms Dee Forbes:

The commission announced today is welcome because apart from the work done by this committee there needs to be proper national engagement on the future of public service media, its role and the wider ecosystem of the audiovisual sector supported by public service media. We are reading what was announced before we came in here today. There is no doubt what it has been asked to do will probably influence further decisions down the road for RTÉ. At the same time, we have work to do. We have to reshape ourselves as an organisation and this is under way. We have to take costs out of the organisation.

We have to pivot ourselves for audiences of the future and that is already under way. I am sure further things will come out of this review. Ultimately, at the centre of this, there needs to be a final decision on the funding of public service broadcasting and whatever that is to be. As we said, for RTÉ to be financially stable, there needs to be a clearer definition of how the funding will happen. We need to cut our costs, as we have outlined, and we also need to stabilise our commercial revenue. Those three things have to happen-----