Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

We are discussing Radio na Gaeltachta which I wholeheartedly support. As a member of a previous committee dealing with communications, I worked hard to get answers from RTE, its ard-stiúrthóir agus daoine eile ar an coiste. The wages of public servants in RTE were like the 29th mystery of Fatima. I refer to the high flyers rather than the ordinary people looking after the grounds and doing back-up work. I do not want to name or shame anyone, but we found out that Pat Kenny had been paid €860,000 in 2006. He was working as a subcontractor.

There has to be fair play and the licence fee is €160 a year. There is choice and many in Gaeltacht areas have a huge spéis sa teanga. They would pay more than this to receive their fair share, but they are not getting it. While on the aforementioned committee, I visited the TG4 studios in Deputy Ó Cuív's constituency where "Ros na Rún" is filmed. It is located at the most western extreme point of the country agus tá an tir seo an bheag ar fad. We gained an excellent insight into its work. As a Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív was passionate about promoting the station and succeeded in getting €6 million for it this year. However, like our language, it has been discriminated against and is forced to operate on a shoestring. The playing field must be level. RTE would do well to cut out the fat in wages and other sources of waste.

When the "Liveline" programme covered Tipperary town after a moment of madness on the part of one or two people, it tried to destroy the good people of Tipperary. When we invited it back to cover Tops of the Schools which the Abbey school was organising in conjunction with St. Ailbe's, it was not interested. It wanted the sceál bocht agus olc.

Bhí TG4 i mo bhaile dúchais an tseachtain seo cáite to film "Éigse Cháislean Nua", a historical perspective on Newcastle's culture and heritage agus an scríobhneoir Seamus Mulcahy. Beidh siad ag teacht arais because they are very interested in being involved and serving the community. That should be the purpose of the national broadcaster; it should not be a self-serving organisation. For years we have seen different personalities in RTE, some of whom never seem to retire. I mean no disrespect to Gay Byrne, but when the former Minister, Noel Dempsey, appointed him as chairman of the Road Safety Authority, he did not know the roads in Newcastle or Connemara. He is fine in Dublin on his Harley Davidson. Will these people ever retire? He can whinge in a newspaper interview that he lost out in the banking crisis, and that is tough, but so did many others. RTE seems to have to get him back for every fiddle-faddle. He was a good broadcaster and I am not denigrating the man but his time has come. He was involved with the Road Safety Authority. I have eight children, ranging in age from 26 to eight, and Gay Byrne means nothing to them. Sports personalities or modern musicians would have had more of an impact.

TG4 deserves support and like Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, I would support this motion except that it is lumped in with an attack on post offices and postal services. It is a pity these issues are taken together. Deputy Tom Hayes and I will have another battle to fight in Tipperary with regard to post offices and we look forward to meeting the Minister in the near future and whatever help he can give. I would support TG4 in any possible way and it should be given a small bit of fair play.

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