New funding plan for RTÉ 'worst of all possible choices'

Vivienne Clarke

Dr Roddy Flynn of Dublin City University’s school of communications has described the proposed deal to fund RTÉ up to €725 million over three years as the “worst of all possible choices”.

The funding, which is expected to be agreed at Wednesday’s final Cabinet meeting before the summer break, “seems like a randomly chosen sum”, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

“I think it buys time. It buys a degree of clarity for the next three years, but I do think that we still haven't actually answered the longer term question of how do you place the funding of public service media, not just RTÉ as an institution, but public service media, on a secure footing for not just the next three years, but the next decade and next the next century, basically, because that's what matters.”

The issue of the fall in TV licence fees had not been addressed, he added. There was also the problem with the drop in commercial funding.

There was no rationale of where the €725 million figure for three years was coming from, he said, or how it was going to be paid.

“It seems like a randomly chosen sum,” Dr Flynn said.

The new funding was kicking the can down the road, he said, adding that it is possible to have a system with certainty built into it, it just required political will “to actually do what they said they were going to do”.

Dr Flynn said TV licence systems in other countries are far more effective, noting Ireland has the highest rate of licence fee evasion in Europe.

Asked if political sensitivity was a reason behind a reluctance to introduce more robust TV licence fee collection measures, he said: “Political sensitivity is what has brought us here. This is a political fudge.

“If it was me, I would make it entirely exchequer funding. I would index link that exchequer funding to a number based on answering the question – what is it that we actually need a public service broadcaster to do? We've never asked that question.”