Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----but that the board did not think it was going to be viable. It is disappointing that there has not been any communication and that the staff in Lyric FM heard about this through Twitter, an email and "Prime Time". That was sad. Lyric FM has been in Limerick for the past 20 years and that was an awful way for the staff to find out that their jobs were in jeopardy. They may have the option of moving to Cork and Dublin but we must also consider climate change. Are they all going to pile into cars and drive up and down the road or will they use public transport? It is not going to be viable for the staff so there are going to be job losses. They are looking for 200 to 300 voluntary redundancies across RTÉ. Maybe Lyric FM should have been given the option of being part of those voluntary redundancies. I should refer to Lyric FM in Limerick, rather than Lyric FM, because the station is not closing, it is just moving to Cork and Dublin.

I feel strongly about this and I appeal to the Minister of State and the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, to get involved in this because people's jobs are in jeopardy here and there will be knock-on effects. Culture is strong in Ireland. Galway will be the European city of culture next year and Limerick was the national city of culture. There are so many cultural organisations, located in every town, village and city in Ireland. This is only the start. If Lyric FM is being dispersed to Cork and Dublin, is RTÉ trying to close it down in the long term? I firmly believe RTÉ was going to close it down originally but that when RTÉ saw people were supportive of Lyric FM, it said it would move the station to Cork and Dublin. RTÉ has drawn a circle. It is looking to keep Lyric FM in Dublin and Cork and do away with the mid-west.

Senators Horkan and Ó Céidigh referred to balanced regional development, which this is going against. Six out of every ten jobs created in Ireland in recent years were in the regions. We must have balanced regional development and this is totally going against the grain of what the Government is trying to achieve.