Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

-----and did not manage to implement his vision during that time. He raised a number of interesting issues.

There were wide-ranging comments from the other contributors, with the exception of Deputy Ferris. Like St. Augustine, it seems we are all in favour of TG4 but we have serious problems with RTE. I will examine the broadcasting scene and I have listened to Deputy Ó Cuív's submission in that regard. I do not know if the single fund system he envisages is in the best interests of broadcasting in Ireland, as TG4 was stripped from RTE for very sound reasons. I could not agree with Deputy Ó Cuív that it came into existence because RTE was not delivering on its objectives with respect to the Irish language. When my colleague, former Deputy Michael D. Higgins, founded TG4 he had more high-minded motives than simply repairing any imagined deficiencies in the coverage of the Irish language by RTE.

In the last Dáil I was privileged to be able to receive on so many occasions the wisdom of Deputy Mattie McGrath, who is uniquely talented at taking both sides of the road with him. By God, he has now met his match in Deputy 'Ming' Flanagan.

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