RTÉ must ‘ensure targets are met’ as Minister considers €20m in withheld funding

RTÉ’s programme of reform must be “going apace” with everything the broadcaster has committed to being carried out in full before a decision would be made on releasing €20 million in withheld funding, the acting Minister for Communications has said.

“We need to ensure that those targets are met, that we are getting those efficiencies, that we are ensuring that money is spent appropriately,” Peter Burke said.

Burke, who is Minister for Enterprise, has temporarily assumed the communications portfolio of Minister Patrick O’Donovan who is recovering from illness.

Speaking at an informal tourism ministers’ summit in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, on Thursday, he said his first move would be to update Cabinet on the programme of reform and how it was progressing.

[ RTÉ to seek further Government funding as licence fee revenue to continue declineOpens in new window ]

“I’d hope to bring forward a memorandum within the next couple of weeks because I am aware obviously we want to resolve this issue quickly but equally we need to ensure that reform is taking place,” he said.

“We need to ensure that all those targets that were committed to and were agreed upon ... are adhered to.”

While he had not followed “in detail” proceedings at Wednesday’s Oireachtas media committee, during which funding and other issues were discussed, he said he was aware of its fractious nature.

“My view is that we want to have calm heads here, de-escalate which is important, that we work through the reforms,” he said.

At Wednesday’s committee hearing, RTÉ’s director general, Kevin Bakhurst, and deputy director general Adrian Lynch said the €20 million budget day funding cut, from an agreed €260 million package, had not been discussed with the broadcaster in advance.

[ Regulator last year recommended that Government should give RTÉ additional €35m in 2027Opens in new window ]

Senior RTÉ executives said there was “never a connection” between the funding increase and reforms, which had been offered by O’Donovan as a reason the funding was withheld, after the budget.

Details of that funding package and any targets and conditions imposed by the Department of Communications are now being sought by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (Pac).

Pac chairman John Brady said O’Donovan had caused “chaos through press statements and public pronouncements” while “abjectly” failing to deliver.

Brady secured the committee’s approval for a public hearing involving RTÉ and the Department of Communications to provide “absolute clarity” on the agreement between the parties, for the benefit of the public.

The committee resolved to write to both sides and ask them to attend a hearing to disclose the details of the funding package.