Taxis, mileage, and car hire: RTÉ racks up €800k travel tab in six months

Ken Foxe

RTÉ spent more than €800,000 on taxi fares, mileage costs, and car hire services for staff and guests in the first half of this year.

The broadcaster said the biggest spend was on mileage, with just over €384,000 paid to employees across the organisation.

The vast majority of that went on broadcast activities, which included a variety of travel to and from work locations.

Just under €268,000, or around €45,000 per month, was spent on taxi fares for staff and guests in Ireland, as well as on trips overseas.

RTÉ paid just over €151,000 for car hire, again split between hire vehicles used within the country and abroad.

The biggest bill was in news and current affairs, where travel costs topped €320,000, while around €150,000 was spent in sport.

There were costs of nearly €176,000 from the content department, a €59,000 bill from Radio 1 and a travel tab of €28,500 from RnaG.

The broadcaster said they would not provide itemised detail on €765,000 of the spending on mileage, cabs, and car hire.

They said it related to the broadcast function of RTÉ and was therefore exempt from release under Freedom of Information laws.

A decision letter said: “The costs were incurred for a variety of reasons, e.g. guest transportation, travel to and from locations for work, BIK [benefit in kind] etc.

“The software does not readily allow for a split between home and overseas taxi or car hire costs, so it is not possible to provide such information.”

RTÉ did provide more granular detail on transport costs involving its commercial operations and the Director General’s Office (DG).

That covered around €39,000 worth of expenditure between January and June, with the DG’s office accounting for around €2,545 of that.

There were also bills of around €7,200 from product development, €3,759 from production services and €1,968 from property and services.

Asked about the expenditure, an RTÉ spokesman said: “[We are] committed to driving value for money across [our] operations, including expenditure on travel, whether related to RTÉ broadcasts or otherwise.

“RTÉ continues to keep travel and other expenses under review.”