Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I thank the House. In respect of the €10 million and the 7% to the Sound and Vision fund, it is already top-sliced to some extent. In reply to the matter raised by Senator Whelan, of course I am concerned about the finances of the national broadcaster. I share his views about the necessity for value for money. As it happens, I have a meeting with the board of the RTE Authority tomorrow. I intend to tell the board that we cannot continue running deficits, that this must be controlled, that we must have value for the taxpayers' money being expended. However, in all fairness, it has to be acknowledged that we are working in a tiny market and the amount of resources available to RTE from the TV licence fund and from commercial revenue, is a tiny fraction of what is available, for example, to the BBC in the neighbouring island. This has to be taken into account. There is an irreducible minimum and going below that will not allow for quality public broadcasting of any kind.

Senator Paschal Mooney asked about the future of investigative programming and I could not agree more with him. I sincerely hope that the rocky times which the national broadcaster has encountered in recent months as a result of the programme to which Senator Michael Mullins referred, "Mission to Prey", will not damage investigative journalism. I agree with Senator Mooney. The decision I took in that matter to require the intervention of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland was taken for two reasons. First, the priest concerned has the same constitutional rights as the rest of us-----