An Independent Councillor has called for an end to RTÉ funding after the broadcaster confirmed it has received €20 million in interim funding this week in order to make up a shortfall as revenue from the licence fee is down 14 per cent “across the last six months.”
Director general Kevin Bakhurst told members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media yesterday that the money was required for normal operating costs, the training and development of staff, investment in technology, and other costs.
Mr Bakhurst also told the Committee that staff at the national broadcaster continued to be allowed to claim unvouched expenses, and said that RTÉ was in negotiations with unions at the station on the matter.
In response to the news on funding Independent Councillor, Gavin Pepper said that “taxpayers money should not be used to prop up RTÉ”.
He told Gript that the funding came from the taxpayer, not the government, and that he believed RTÉ had lost its right to public funding because of bias in its reporting. “They only give one side of the debate, that’s why people don’t want to pay the licence,”he said, adding that there should be an end to the licence fee under the current situation.
Taxpayer's money should not be used to prop up RTE
— Cllr Gavin Pepper (@gavpepper85) July 3, 2024
At yesterday’s hearing Independent TD Mattie McGrath said that the “shenanigans” that had taken place in RTÉ required investigation.
The Tipperary TD said that “basic, naked criminality” had taken place in RTÉ in regard to self-employment and called for the fraud squad or Criminal Assets Bureau to be sent into RTÉ to investigate.
He also told RTÉ representatives the Montrose site should be sold and that the broadcaster should move out of Dublin. He said that 400 employees were going to lose their jobs because of the crisis and that many had no pensions.
He asked if BBC’s Panorama needed to come in to do an investigative programme on RTÉ. “We’ve got nowhere since we started this,” he said. “I have absolutely no faith in what we’re at here,” describing those involved as “untouchable”.
Mr Bakhurst was asked by Micheál Carrigy TD if RTÉ should be offering a severance package reported to be €400,000 to Jim Jennings, the current director of content who has been on sick leave from the organisation. The RTÉ DG said he was not in a position to confirm that but that the package was now the subject of negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission.