Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat. So, too, are RTE's advertising revenues, a situation with which one member of the RTE authority is completely dissatisfied.
The Connemara-based film maker, Mr Bob Quinn, has written to the chairman of the authority, Prof Farrel Corcoran, informing them he is "suspending" his membership of it until after Christmas. He is taking this action in protest at what he describes as the "frenzy" of advertising which will be directed at children on RTE over the next few weeks.
He has also announced his support for "Buy Nothing Day" next Friday, which is being organised by the One World Centre in Galway in conjunction with groups in other countries who have linked up via the Internet. The organisers hope to focus attention on the increasing commercialisation of Christmas by getting enough consumers to refuse to consume on that day.
In his letter, Mr Quinn referred to what he described as a recent uncritical news report on RTE radio about a possible shortage of a particular brand of toy. This would have the effect of hyping the product and creating parental hysteria, he said.
Prof Corcoran said the authority had examined the question of children's advertising a number of times.
While he understood Mr Quinn's unease about the issue, particularly at Christmas, the authority had taken the view that a ban on children's advertising was not the solution.
The "brute economic reality" was that such a ban would damage RTE commercially, and would not solve the problem since children would continue to be exposed to advertising from other television stations.
The advertising revenue would simply switch from RTE to a competitor, he said.
RTE had, however, taken steps to address concerns about the impact of such advertising. It had introduced a ban on advertising aimed at pre-school children.
RTE also broadcast public service announcements which aimed to counter the influence of commercial advertising.
Mr Quinn's self-suspension had no legal effect, as the only way a member of the authority could remove himself would be to resign outright.
However, he understood the film-maker's desire to distance himself from the authority at this time, and would respect that decision, Prof Corcoran said.
Mr Quinn detailed his concerns about advertising in a public lecture in Sligo earlier this year. He said many of the toys advertised on RTE over the Christmas period would be made in deplorable conditions by children in developing countries who would be paid a pittance for their efforts.
He quoted statements by Trocaire last Christmas, which detailed the exploitation and poor working conditions in such "sweatshops". In one instance, a worker whose hand was caught in a machine was given £15 and let go. In a factory in Vietnam, 200 workers were contaminated with chemicals while spraying plastic toys for one multinational company.
"They looked for compensation and were promptly fired," Mr Quinn said.
"TV commercials are the essential ingredient in this industry. Most of the plastic gewgaws that hardly last beyond St Stephen's Day depend entirely on TV to persuade impressionable children to plague their parents to buy them. I've had six children and I know. Without TV commercials, most of them would be left on the shelf."
He said such advertising posed ethical problems for any broadcasting company.
"To state it bluntly, the business of Christmas toy advertising on television colludes with a multinational policy of exploiting children as child labour in one half of the world and as child consumers in the other half."
RTE is "unfortunately implicated" in this, according to Mr Quinn.
"I say unfortunately because RTE takes its public broadcasting role very seriously. Well, as seriously as it can afford to: it has 2,000 employee mouths to feed. That means it must maintain its commercial income at all costs.
"To drop its Christmas toy advertising would cost it over £1 million. Mind you, to me that sum doesn't seem much in an annual turnover of £150 million, £80 million of which comes from advertising."
According to Mr Quinn, this commercial pressure presents "problems" for RTE.
"Last December, Trocaire organised a public campaign on the subject of these sweatshops. The press gave generous space to the effort. There was no mention on RTE radio or TV that I can trace, although there was plenty of coverage on independent local radio . . .
"This difficulty with such a subject was apparently shared by toy retailers. Trocaire wrote to 30 of the major outlets, supermarkets. Not a single one replied," Mr Quinn said.