The future of the public service broadcaster was discussed in the Dáil this afternoon with politicians from across the parties delivering statements on RTÉ to the Minister for Communications, Richard Bruton.

Last week RTÉ confirmed it is seeking to reduce its workforce by 200 as one of a series of measures to tackle its financial crisis and reduce projected costs by €60m over the next three years.

Fianna Fáil's Jack Chambers said that the problems being faced by media were not unique to RTÉ and that the Government blaming everyone on RTÉ's failure to attract more advertising was either delusional or disingenuous 

He said Government's decision to kick reform five years down the road will ensure the steady decline of public service broadcasting. 

Sinn Féin's TD David Cullinane said there needs to be cultural, financial and structural changes at RTÉ, irrespective of them looking for changes to the licence fee.

He said was not convinced the plan from Director General of RTÉ Dee Forbes, would work, adding that it did not seem to have specific targets or seem to be fully costed.  

Labour's Jan O'Sullivan said the proposal to remove Lyric FM from Limerick was destructive. She also said the plans were "Dublin-centric". 

Richard Boyd Barrett from Solidarity-People Before Profit said ordinary workers in RTÉ and ordinary householders should not be made pay for the price of the crisis.  

The leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan, spoke about the power of social media companies and how a pot of digital advertising was going to them, with the leftovers going to companies like Sky and Netflix.  

He said money was leaving the country that needed to go into Irish content.

A number of the TDs raised the issue of high salaries in RTÉ.  

Responding to the TDs' statements, Mr Bruton said this was an extremely important debate.  

He said an extra €10 million was provided to RTÉ in last year's budget and this year the Government had decided to tender out what he described as the "leaky" system of licence fee collection.  

He said RTÉ was making a significant effort and that it needs to make the public service offering more vibrant, to attract new audiences and reach the platforms people use to consume content on. 

He said it does require significant restructuring within the organisation, considerable investment in new areas and reducing the scale of other areas.