Ms Dee Forbes:

I thank the Deputy for his comments. I will take away his observations and I could not agree more with the Deputy on the Irish output, the Irish impact and Irish culture and arts. It is something on which we place huge importance within RTÉ and on which we want to place even more importance. It is one of the areas where our output has actually increased because of the way we restructured ourselves as an organisation.

Now, there is a thread of arts and cultural output going through all areas of RTÉ, from radio to TV to digital on a regular basis. I hope that there will be some element in the commission that was announced this morning, for example, on the future of public service broadcasting, to address Irish content for Irish audiences but also the importance of that and the Irish voice. Unless we have our own voice accentuated in this world, we will be talked at and talked for. I agree with what has been said in that regard. I would welcome any further development on it, as that is something we want to do more of.