Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Given the straitened economic circumstances in which we have found ourselves over the past three years, the Deputy is correct that any alleviation of charges, fees or levies on people generally would be helpful but he should not hold out a reduction in the television licence fee as alleviating the pressures under which people find themselves. I am not sure that of itself it would constitute a significant mitigation of the burden.

I take it that when the Deputy referred to high earning people in RTE, he was referring to a small number of contract staff because in so far as I have examined this - primarily it is a matter for the board and management of the station - it is not fair to broadcast the canard that ordinary RTE workers are paid exorbitant salaries. That is not the case. Some of the first impositions in terms of reductions and so on or constraints in the cost base were imposed in RTE and a severe redundancy programme has just concluded. The Deputy is probably referring to a small number of highly paid contract staff and my understanding from the chairman and director general is steps have been taken in that regard, having regard to the contracts those people entered into in the profligate years.

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