A Dublin District Court judge has slammed those he described as “freeloaders” in RTÉ, who he said were involved in “shenanigans” that had left him “appalled and disgusted” – while those before him for failure to pay a TV licence were “crippled by the cost of living.”
Judge Anthony Halpin was presiding over prosecutions brought against those who had not paid their €160 annual television licence fees at a special weekly sitting for that purpose.
The judge said that he was “disgusted and appalled” by the recent revelations about the national broadcaster, the Irish Examiner reported.
“The people before this court are accused of failing to pay the TV licence fee, and these people may feel a little hard done by when they see the way RTÉ has abused statutory funding which is annually provided to RTÉ,” he said.
“The revelations have rocked the very foundations of the national public broadcaster and have sent, not ripples, but seismic shock waves throughout the organisation,” he told the court.
Using the famed quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet – “there is something rotten in the State of Denmark” – Judge Halpin said that the phrase could apply to the “shenanigans and mischievous activities that have gone on in RTÉ over the past number of years of which we knew nothing”.
“I am appalled and disgusted that such clandestine, secretive and dubious goings-on would be the order of the day in respect of arrangements between RTÉ and the god-like personalities who seem to be above scrutiny.”
He also said that the Dáil committees questioning the RTÉ executives had a “difficult and gruelling task in getting to the truth.”
“George Orwell, in both Animal Farm and 1984, was preoccupied with the way language can be manipulated as an instrument of control. The shifting positions of persons giving evidence before the committees is testament to this,” Judge Halpin said.
“In Animal Farm, Squealer, the pig who was Comrade Napoleon’s propaganda machine, abuses language by whatever means necessary in twisting and distorting rhetoric so as to justify behaviour,” he continued.
“To get the right answer, one must ask the right question, or the facts will remain concealed unless otherwise uncovered by diligent and assiduous examination,” Judge Halpin said.
“Our Dáil committees have triumphantly succeeded in this regard, but there is more work to do.”
PAY BACK BENEFITS
The judge slammed what he called the “elitism and exclusivity shown and demonstrated by the RTÉ ruling class”.
He described it as “an anathema to the fundamental principles which underpin the freedom of the press and the trust engendered thereby of an independent, professional, honest and responsible national broadcasting service which is the backbone to any democracy”.
“Shame on those who have brought that about. I will go no further than those remarks, but I must say those freeloaders in RTÉ who received a loan of cars, who received branded cars free gratis, spouses of RTÉ who were wined and dined and part-took of events at the expense of RTE, and others who were lavished with such generosity, ought to pay back to the organisation the euro equivalent of the benefit they received, to help this financially strapped semi-State body.
“Also, those personalities and senior executives who received unconscionable sums of money should reflect on their position and do the right thing.”
CRIPPLED WITH COST OF LIVING
Addressing those before the court, he said it saddened him that those “who are crippled with the cost of living, have to swallow this unpalatable pill of the licence fee when they see that such a source of income is squandered and abused.”
However, he acknowledged that the law compelled those with a TV to have a licence.
“I will afford more time to those who need it, and An Post may enter into an arrangement with you to pay by debit mandate or collect stamps so as to help with the expense of the licence fee,” he said.
“Those who intend to do this, I will leave without a conviction, and those who do not turn up, I have no choice but to convict, but I will keep the fine to a minimum.”