‘RTÉ needs to solve its debt crisis and stop looking for handouts’
Broadcaster needs to ‘think outside the box’ says Oireachtas media committee chief
RTÉ needs to ‘get creative to find solutions’ to its financial problems instead of always looking for handouts, the head of the Oireachtas Committee on Media has said.
In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, Niamh Smyth said the State broadcaster’s linkup with Virgin Media to screen the current Six Nations rugby championship was a good example of the organisation ‘thinking outside the box’, and that RTÉ needs to do more of that.
‘This was a great initiative. Neither broadcaster could afford to secure the rights on their own, so they teamed up to bring the event to Irish audiences,’ said Deputy Smith.
‘We need to see more of this from them [RTÉ]. If they can continue in this way and think creatively, if they can get creative to find solutions, they can start to get out of the situation they are in.’
But the Fianna Fáil TD said RTÉ is still a ‘long way short’ of streamlining its operations.
‘It’s about creating efficiency in RTÉ. They’re constantly in the red. The number of managers which a company has needs to be in proportion to the size of the company,’ the Cavan-Monaghan TD added.
‘If they need help in making the organisation more efficient, then we’re prepared to offer that help.
‘I think people have the idea that RTÉ are always looking for handouts, but they have to be able to come up with solutions too.’
Referring to the fact that more than 115 people in RTÉ earned over €100,000 in 2020, Ms Smyth said: ‘It’s not good enough. I’ve huge value for what RTÉ does, but they’ve a big job to do in making themselves more efficient and bringing salaries more in line with other companies.’
Speaking last year after staff overwhelmingly rejected proposed pay cuts, RTÉs Director General Dee Forbes said that, in addition to the station’s voluntary redundancy scheme, the broadcaster was ‘now actively suppressing a range of vacancies and where possible seeking not to replace those who are retiring’.
An RTÉ insider told the MoS that a lack of new recruits and people coming up the organisation was the reason why the station ‘struggled to fill’ the vacant Washington Correspondent post last year. The station had to advertise twice for the post and in the end, reporter Seán Whelan was appointed.
Ms Smyth said a recruitment freeze was not the way forward for RTÉ. She told the MoS: ‘New talent is incredibly important in any organisation but especially a creative one like RTÉ. It’s important that RTÉ nurtures new talent.’
When asked about reports this week that the Revenue Commissioners would be asked to collect the television licence fee in the future under a proposal to be considered later this month by ministers, Ms Smyth acknowledged that this would be ‘a hard
‘It’s important that RTÉ nurtures new talent’
sell’ to the public given the soaring cost of living.
However, she said her committee believes this is the right way forward.
‘The current model is broken, that’s easy to see.
There’s an evasion rate of 15% and that can’t go on,’ Ms Smyth said.
‘We’re all used to paying for TV now, with streaming channels and we should pay for RTÉ as well. The pandemic showed that people want a good source of trusted news and RTÉ delivers that.
‘There’s a market for Irish content, be it news, current affairs or drama. I, for one, like to settle down on a Sunday evening and watch something like Smother or whatever it is and I don’t think I’m alone in that,’ she said. ‘I know people might see it [the broadcasting charge] as an extra tax. ‘I don’t know how it will be applied, I don’t have all the answers at this stage but I do think we need to protect public sector broadcasting.’ Ms Smyth said ‘much on the future of RTE’ will become clear when the report on the Future of Media Commission is made public.
‘That report has been with the [Culture and Media] minister [Catherine Martin] since October and we’re all very anxious to see it. It should give us a blueprint on how to go forward, not least with RTÉ. I wrote to her again this week asking when we might see it?’
Sources said the Government is expected to reject a recommendation from the Future of Media Commission that the €160 annual fee be scrapped and replaced with direct exchequer funding for RTÉ.
Meanwhile, RTÉ has disputed that it told the Public Accounts Committee that it will need ‘several million euro of capital investment’ to bring its much-maligned digital player to ‘parity of service with linear broadcast services’.
A spokesperson said the millions of euro referred to ‘capital expenditure across the board’.
The broadcaster also confirmed to the MoS that consultancy firm Willis Towers Watson is carrying out a review of structures and grading at Montrose.