Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, ex-Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, says that Media Minister Catherine Martin has shown “poor judgement” in her handling of the RTÉ crisis, and says RTÉ may only be the tip of the iceberg regarding wasteful State-funded bodies.
Welcome to the dark side, Ellen.
From climate to immigration
This is not an especially radical proposal – outside of the constitutional change necessary to enact it – but it would, I feel, make an enormous difference to the attitude to public money that is too often pervasive across Ireland’s public sector.
That’s two of the media’s top two topics – Gaza and RTE – barely registering with the electorate at all, while the voters care about things that have been shunted significantly down the news agenda.
The lack of any real reform to RTE in the months since the Tubridy payment scandal has been obvious, and once again blame for that should fall at the feet of the Chairwoman of the Board.
Late Late
“untenable”
Media Minister Catherine Martin when asked if she accepts that people boycotting the TV license don’t want to fund RTÉ in any way: “What I would say to that is that the TV license is the law of the land, so it needs to be paid…it funds public service broadcasting.”
It does not speak well of Mr. Bakhurst that he would try something like this.
After all, one might also argue that given that this mess happened on her watch, the Minister for Communications has a moral obligation to resign and repay her own salary. Right?
A politician with the balls (forgive me) to stand up and say what a lot of people are thinking – that RTE should be cut loose from public funding and left to its own devices – might quickly win the hearts and minds of a great many more voters than conventional wisdom suggests.