The Broadcasting Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against RTE that it was unfair to the Workers' Party in its coverage of the Amsterdam Treaty referendum campaign last year.
The party complained that it was excluded from the station's referendum coverage and, in particular, from party debates.
In March, the commission decided that RTE had been unfair to the party, but the matter was reconsidered after RTE objected.
RTE declined to comment yesterday and said it had not received details of the decision.
During the original hearing in March RTE said that it had had to cover two referendums last May, the Amsterdam Treaty and the Belfast Agreement. "Given that RTE had to handle two quite different referenda simultaneously, the overall quantum of time which could be given to any one of the campaigns was effectively halved to what is normally available for a single referendum", it told the commission.
Because the Amsterdam Treaty raised European legal issues, the station had had to include the views of experts and MEPs from outside the Republic. RTE submitted that, given these factors, it had tried to "ensure that the issues debated during the referendum were covered as comprehensively as possible, involving a mix and balance of party political and non-political interest groups".
The Workers' Party said it had been excluded from debates on programmes such as Prime Time and The Week in Politics.
"On the final day of campaigning, the Workers' Party was asked if it could supply a speaker for that night's main current affairs programme. The Workers' Party informed RTE that a speaker was available. On the night, RTE decided to drop the speaker in favour of a speaker from the Green Party." RTE said that the contacts it had had with the party in the last week of the campaign had been made in "good faith" and in the interests of assessing the options available to the programme-makers to "achieve the required balance in the context of the planned programme".