Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome here today. It is important to have this debate and I am delighted that it has been put on the agenda. It is unfortunate that we will not be able to finish it today because it is such an important issue. The proposed cutbacks at RTÉ were first leaked on "Prime Time" not long ago. I will focus on the situation at Lyric FM, as I am from Limerick and the area means much to me.

I agree with all that has been said about RTÉ already. We need to find ways of streamlining it and making it more cost-efficient. I encourage the Minister of State, the Minister and everybody else to work on that. Mentors, or some other outside company, might have to come in and work with RTÉ management and help it come up with new ideas.

I have gone back over some recent newspaper articles, particularly those relating to Lyric FM. A number of years ago, Lyric FM lost half its staff. It now has 20 permanent and five part-time staff. This is not just about the lives of 25 people; it is also about their families because many of them have homes in Limerick, and their children attend local schools and so on. The proposed closure of the Limerick studio would therefore have a knock-on effect on 50 or 60 people.

While it has been suggested that something will put in place for the news correspondent, it will be like a kiosk. At the moment, if other stations, such as RTÉ Radio 1 or RTÉ 2FM, need to broadcast from Limerick, they use the facilities at the Lyric FM studio for both television and radio. The proposed kiosk might facilitate one or two people but will not be a studio. There are many purpose-built studios in Limerick, including ones in Limerick Institute of Technology, the University of Limerick, UL, Mary Immaculate College and Troy Studios. There are many cultural aspects on offer in Limerick. I was delighted that, at a special meeting of the council last week, it was suggested that the council would lead in putting it up to RTÉ. It was also suggested that it would bring onboard the third level institutes and business people, and that we would fight the proposed closure of Lyric FM in Limerick as a group. The staff in Lyric FM will not feel they are on their own, which is important. People have been supportive of them, not only in the mid west, but nationally as well. A briefing with the staff of Lyric FM was held in Leinster House today, at which it was great to see support from both across parties and across the country. It was a boost for the staff to see people coming out and supporting them.

Culture is very much part of our heritage in Limerick, in the mid-west and in Ireland. Lyric FM provided that offering of culture. While it is proposed to disperse the station between Cork and Dublin, it will not be the same thing. Lyric FM built up cultural links in Limerick with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, choirs and different groups, many of which came from around the country to perform at the station. It worked in co-operation with many cultural groups. Those links took a long time to put together and it will now be very hard to keep them going. It is equally hard on the staff.

I understand that RTÉ has to find a way of cutting costs. However, UL, which will be joined by the local authority and other groups in Limerick, has made a proposal to allow it to use the Lyric FM facilities. That proposal must be taken seriously by RTÉ, but UL has not received any response to date. It costs €800 to run each programme on Lyric FM, while it costs on average €1,400 an hour for each of the other stations. There is a big cost difference there.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra hosted an event in the University of Limerick last Thursday evening and people from different choirs and cultural organisations came out in full force just to say they stand with Lyric FM. I do not believe the proposal to close Lyric FM only came up in the past 12 months. The cultural CEO of RTÉ has never even set foot in the Lyric FM offices in Limerick, which sends out a message in its own right. RTÉ will make proposals about cutbacks, the unions and so on but as there is such a huge groundswell of support for the staff, it is important that we also work with them, both cross-party and cross-county. We must come up with proposals, not only for saving Lyric FM in Limerick but for cost-saving measures as well.Dee Forbes stated, in an article in the Irish Independentin September of this year, that she had proposed moving Lyric FM to Carraroe in County Galway and I am sure Senator Ó Céidigh would have been pleased to hear that-----