Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is always nice to see the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and he is a man for whom I have great respect but to be honest, I am disappointed that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, is not here because he is the decision maker. I want to be very direct in the next point and I accept the good wishes and goodwill of everyone in terms of keeping Lyric FM in Limerick. This is a political decision in the first instance by RTÉ to close down Lyric FM in Limerick. As the trade union representative for those workers said to us this morning, Lyric FM is Limerick, as 80% of the station's output comes from Limerick. People have invested in Limerick and built lives there.

We need the Minister to make a political decision and what disappoints me is that, during a Commencement debate last week, the Minister said something I had never heard him say before. He said he was not across the detail of this proposal. I disagree with the Minister on many things but I salute him that, whenever he comes into this Chamber, he is across every aspect and detail of his brief and always has been but that is what he said last week.

The Minister went on to say that this does not appear to be within his remit. He gave the same answer in the Dáil last week. I am extremely concerned that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment seems to think he can fold his arms and accept that Lyric FM will close in Limerick. I am here to say, on behalf of all the people of Limerick, we will never accept the closure of our national station. Fine Gael will never be forgiven and it will never be forgotten if Lyric FM closes under its watch; that cannot be allowed to happen. It makes no sense from a financial perspective.

I asked the staff of Lyric FM this morning if consideration was given to moving people out of Dublin to the cheaper location of Limerick. It is amazing that the Lyric FM staff have not been given any of the financial details behind these decisions. They are still in the dark. We heard that, horrifically, they found out through the media about the plans for the station but they still do not actually know any of the financial data behind these decisions. As a Member noted in the Dáil last week, the Minister appears to be uninterested. That is also my impression and it is not good enough.

Sinn Féin's position is very clear on this: we will lead a campaign to keep Lyric FM in Limerick. We will not accept the excuse that these are matters within the remit of RTÉ. The Minister has a role to protect RTÉ as a national broadcaster and that must include Limerick.