RTÉ is to give full disclosure of its financial affairs next year when its accounts will, for the first time, be published in detail.
The station's director general, Mr Bob Collins, announced yesterday that the accounts for the first quarter of 2003 would be made widely available.
Speaking at a public session of the Forum on Broadcasting, which was established last March to make recommendations on issues such as whether there is a role for public service broadcasting, Mr Collins said the way RTÉ reported on its expenditure in its annual accounts had to be more comprehensive and more transparent than at present.
"There are few more critical than I about some aspects of RTÉ's public accounting and a great deal of work has been undertaken and is ongoing at present, and by quarter one of 2003 there will be a degree of transparency and openness in the way RTÉ presents its information which I believe will satisfy most people with an interest in these matters," he said. Mr Collins said he would have been happier if this had happened earlier.
There was also a need for a five yearly review of the effectiveness of RTÉ's operations and the way it spent public funding, he added.
On RTÉ's TV licence fee, he said there was a need to examine new ways of collecting the fee. The broadcaster estimates up to €20 million goes uncollected by An Post in licence fees every year. Its collection could be put out to tender, he said.
Mr Collins stressed that RTÉ had the lowest percentage of public funding of any public broadcaster in the EU. Its 32 per cent share compared to an EU average of 65 per cent. The fee needed to move closer to the European average and be index linked, he said.
The forum is specifically precluded from dealing with the adequacy or otherwise of the current RTE licence fee but it was urged to break this remit.
Mr Willie O'Reilly, chief executive of Today FM, argued that with just 36 per cent of Irish households watching RTÉ television at any one time, many were through their licence fee funding programmes they did not see. "He who pays the piper is not hearing the tune," he said. Neither Today FM nor TV3 wanted part of the licence fee, but part of the fee could be diverted to a special fund from which programme makers from all sectors, including local radio, could apply for funds, Mr O'Reilly suggested.
Mr Dermot Hanrahan, representing the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, said when one considered the amount of non-Irish-produced soaps on RTÉ and compared it to TV3, it could be difficult to "spot the public service broadcaster".
He said nobody knew how RTÉ used its licence fee because it was not separately accounted for. This, he said, had to change.
He favoured replacing the present licence fee with a tax on subscriber-based services including cable, MMDS and satellite. "Collection rates would be 100 per cent and the average subscriber would pay roughly the same as they presently pay through the licence fee. The cost of collection and enforcement would be far less than the present system," he claimed.
The proceeds from the new tax should, he said, be given to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, which would receive submissions from all broadcasters including RTÉ for subvention of public service programming.
Earlier, forum chairman Mr Maurice O'Connell said the forum's ambition was to meet a deadline of July 31st next to report its findings to the Minister for Communication and National Resources.
The other six members of the forum are: businesswoman Ms Gillian Bowler; Ms Jean Callanan, of Waterford Crystal; Prof John Horgan, DCU; Mr Donal Kelly, former political editor, RTÉ; Prof Declan Kiberd, UCD; and Ms Patricia Quinn, director of the Arts Council.
Yesterday's meeting was the only public session the forum intended to hold.
Mr O'Connell said, however, that it would continue to accept submissions from interested parties.
A transcript of yesterday's public session of the forum is to be posted shortly on its website:
www.forumonbroadcasting.ie