Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The record will show that RTE has led the way among the State corporations in grappling with the implications of the economic downturn and attempting to provide feasible solutions. One should bear in mind the reduction in the number of staff, for example. Three hundred and fifty staff have left voluntarily, including 270 in 2012 alone. In the past four years, the headcount has been reduced by 493. This big drop, from 2,351 to 1,858, represents a reduction of 21%. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter relates to the collapse in commercial revenue. The collapse in advertising has been more dramatic than anybody had forecast. This is not significantly due to the recession but to advertisers' migrating to other platforms and companies, where they can tailor their advertising to particular segments of the market that they want to target. The fall in the licence fee is not very significant or serious but the fall in commercial revenue has been quite dramatic. The cost of operating activities has decreased by 24%, or €104 million, from €439 million in 2008 to €335 million at the end of 2012.

On the Deputy's central point, which concerns efficiency and value for money, there have been very serious cutbacks. We must, in the interest of fairness, have regard to quality also. The national broadcaster will not get away with quality lapses, and if they arise they will be quickly highlighted and scrutinised. We have to take that into account as well.

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