Blame for RTÉ mess lies with RTÉ, not the funding model
RTÉ’S COVERAGE of its own management’s plan to rescue the organisation from self-inflicted financial ruin amounts to a complete betrayal of the principles of public-service broadcasting, which is the only reason the organisation actually exists.
Following the publication this week of new director general Kevin Bakhurst’s strategic vision for the beleaguered station, RTÉ’s current affairs programmes have, by way of various contributors, repeatedly broadcast – shamelessly and without challenge – claims that the station is in turmoil because of the absence of what’s been described as a ‘proper funding model’.
Essentially, the false narrative currently being spun by RTÉ goes: It’s the politicians in general and the Government in particular, who are to blame for the current mess at RTÉ. Those terrible politicians throttled RTÉ financially by not having a ‘proper’ funding model which would have allowed the station to better organise itself, strategise till the cows come home and never produce a financial loss.
Of course all of that is one big, stinking fat lie – a lie, however, that risks gaining credibility with the public for the number of times it’s being repeated. And repeated.
The truth, however, is precisely the polar opposite.
Since its foundation, RTÉ has had the enormous benefit of a ‘proper’ funding model, characterised by its simplicity and scale. And it has worked like this – each and every year the Government imposes a tax (enforced by way of threats and menaces, including the coercive power of imprisonment) on the people of Ireland, such tax then being handed over to our broadcasting gurus in Donnybrook.
This resulted in the last 10 years, 2013 to 2022 inclusive, in RTÉ receiving €1.879bn, free gratis, saor in aisce and without lifting a finger. Now, what could possibly be not ‘proper’ about that model? There’s isn’t a company in Ireland that wouldn’t chop its hands off at the wrist for that sort of free cash, each year and on time.
Further, RTÉ didn’t have to concern itself with wild fluctuations in this funding model, about which there is now such an unedited chorus of condemnation.
The lowest amount handed over to RTÉ in the last 10 years was €178.6m in 2014, and the highest payment of €196.6m arrived like clockwork in 2020. That’s a variation of €18m at the very widest; mostly it was much tighter than that, and at any rate small enough not to interfere with RTÉ’s financial planning. RTÉ knew that each and every year it would be receiving a State-backed guaranteed income averaging €189m.
If that’s not a proper funding model then what is it?
THE problem with RTÉ management is that they ignored the enormously generous scale of funding they were receiving, refused to cut their cloth to their measure, and instead escalated staffing levels and vanity services and conducted misadventures to the point where they bankrupted the station.
Already €56m has been ringfenced for such RTÉ profligacy, but the likelihood is that a lot more money will be needed. Which means other and arguably more urgent and deserving calls on that money, such as mental health services and care for special needs children, will simply have to do without. And, of course, RTÉ current affairs will report on such lack of funding in those areas of public healthcare without assigning any blame to themselves for such privations.
The Ryan Tubridy under-thecounter payments scandal may have done us all a favour in the way it crystallised the financial mess at RTÉ. It has been a basket case for years, and if the politicians are to be blamed for anything, it’s for averting their gaze.
There’s nothing wrong with the TV licence tax funding model that has kept RTÉ afloat all these years. What was wrong was successive RTÉ managements’ failure, or refusal, to properly manage their affairs with that model in a way that would have avoided them going bust. The blame for what’s occurring now at RTÉ rests with RTÉ itself, not the funding model.
The failure by all at RTÉ to recognise that, including the station’s news and current affairs journalists, editors and producers, is extremely worrying.
They failed with the licence tax model. What entitles us to think they’ll do any better with a newer, more expensive model that pours even more money into RTÉ? The answer is nothing. Nothing at all.