‘Licence fee is dead’: RTÉ crisis leaves Government with unappealing choice of funding models

The view of Minister for Arts and Media Catherine Martin on possible future funding for RTÉ is not shared by the holders of the purse strings in Government. But even those resolutely opposed to giving State funding directly to RTÉ indefinitely acknowledge that they face unpalatable choices between unappealing alternatives.

Martin, who secured the agreement of her colleagues for an immediate injection of €16 million for the beleaguered broadcaster this week and for a further, conditional, €40 million next year, told reporters on Wednesday that all options for funding the broadcaster into the future were “on the table”.

She explained that while a “technical group” of officials were examining funding options for RTÉ, she believed that the recommendation of the Future of Media Commission (a group of experts which reported to the Government last year) to abolish the licence fee and replace it with direct funding from the Government should also be considered.

“All options the technical working group have examined plus I believe exchequer funding should be on the table too,” she said.

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This is an attempt to nudge her colleagues into reconsidering the option they rejected outright last year. At the time, when the Future of Media group reported, almost all the significant decision-makers in Government, including Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar, Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe, were against the proposal to replace RTÉ’s €200 million a year income from the licence fee with direct State funding. It was the only recommendation of the commission to be rejected outright.

There is still deep opposition to this idea. But senior figures in Government acknowledge that the entire environment has now changed as a result of RTÉ’s self-inflicted wounds. “The licence fee is dead,” says one senior figure simply.

If that’s true the choice is on one hand between a new charge – a political nightmare, say many in Government – that is perhaps more generally applied but with its proceeds more widely available to other media outlets, and, on the other, direct exchequer funding for RTÉ.

RTÉ faces two separate but related questions – the immediate funding hole and the longer-term funding model. In both it is entirely dependent on the Government. RTÉ bosses are trying to placate the unions but by far their most importance audience is the small number of people who will actually make the decision.

This week the station’s boss Kevin Bakhurst unveiled a plan to shrink RTÉ, cutting costs and staff numbers, outsourcing more programme-making and closing some services. The Government has fronted up with a bailout – but with strict conditions attached. The first €16 million will be paid next week, and the next €20 million early in the new year when reports into the controversies at the station are published. The remaining €20 million will only be paid if targets are met, senior political sources insist.

But dramatic though it may be, this is the short-term stuff. The longer-term funding question will not be settled immediately but three separate sources indicated that it will have to be done in the coming months.

A new broadcasting charge for all households would be politically problematic for obvious reasons: what government wants to introduce a new charge in the year before an election? This is said to be high among the considerations of the party leaders. But the two budget Ministers are understood to remain resolutely opposed to exchequer funding for the station.

One source said that it was “100 per cent certain” that the Government would not “walk away” from the €100 million that the licence fee collects, even with diminished collection. Another, asked if opposition at the top of Government remained as strong as last year, replied “chalk it down”. Three other sources amplified these comments.

But if that opposition remains the Government faces introducing a new charge to replace the licence fee. It’s often said that the business of government is usually choosing between two unappealing alternatives. This looks like a textbook case.