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LAST UPDATE | 25 Jun 2023
MORE THAN SEVEN in 10 people don’t believe trust in RTÉ can be restored following the Ryan Tubridy payment controversy.
75% of those surveyed by Amárach for today’s Irish Mail on Sunday said that Tubridy should have corrected the record himself, while 63% believe the license fee should now be made optional.
In today’s paper:
— Irish Mail on Sunday (@IrishMailSunday) June 24, 2023
- POLL: Seven-in-ten say RTÉ can’t regain their trust
- Mosquitoes could soon be Irish residents: expert
- Bono’s boy is dating supermodel’s daughter
And lots more … pic.twitter.com/72AN5ooYpd
It followed a meeting with the Chair of the RTÉ Board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, to discuss the fact that RTÉ’s highest paid star earned an extra €345,000 over the course of over six years than the broadcaster had previously disclosed.
“Public trust in RTÉ must be rebuilt,” said Minister Martin yesterday.
“Therefore, a Government decision on the future funding model for public service broadcasting has been paused until such time as this review is complete and the findings considered,” she added.
On Friday, the RTÉ Board confirmed that its Director General Dee Forbes was suspended from her employment on Wednesday, 21 June.
Forbes was due to step down from her position on 10 July, to be replaced by new Director General Kevin Bakhurst.
Meanwhile, Tubridy has “apologised unreservedly” for not asking questions when RTÉ published incorrect figures for his earnings.
Tubridy said he will not be presenting his daily radio show next week.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week host Justin McCarthy told the chairperson of the Oireachtas Media Committee, Niamh Smyth, that RTÉ couldn’t comment further on details of the scandal for legal reasons.
Smyth said: “It would be a huge mistake of the executive to come before our committee on Wednesday and give those non answers that you have read out.”
“That will only increase annoyance, it will irritate the public even further, and it will damage the brand even further,” she said, adding that she expects an apology on Wednesday from the board for misleading her committee about salaries at RTÉ.
When asked if she wanted to see senior figures in RTÉ losing their positions over the scandal, Smyth said “if that’s what’s required, that’s what’s required”.
“This is not a witch hunt, this is not looking for somebody’s head. This is looking for accountability.”
Also speaking on the show, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure Patrick Donovan questioned how widespread a custom of secret payments might be in other organisations.
“Is this a culture that is just within RTÉ? Or does it extend to other commercial semi state and public bodies where there are these barter accounts, which the people that we’ve heard from so far within the RTÉ organization didn’t have the knowledge of?”
The Irish Mail on Sunday poll found that 63% of respondents now believe the licence fee should be made optional.
The TV licence fee is €160 and Dee Forbes has appeared before Oireachtas Committees in the past to make a case for increasing the fee.
“The core structural funding problem remains” at RTÉ, Forbes told a committee last year, stating that the losses to public service media funding are now estimated to be €65 million annually.
Licence fee incomes make up around 55% of RTÉ’s total income, with the rest coming from commercial activities.
In a statement today, RTÉ said because it is dual funded, its “commercial activities are restricted by statute and Ministerial decision”.
“RTÉ is permitted approximately half the commercial airtime (on both radio and TV) of independent/commercial broadcasters,” added the RTÉ spokesperson.
“Over 90% of RTÉ’s annual advertising/sponsorship revenues are through negotiated commercial contracts with a number of media buying agencies each year,” said the RTÉ spokesperson.
“Those media agencies buy airtime/advertising space from media organisations, including RTÉ, on behalf of their clients and are paid a commission. RTÉ offers all media buying agencies an industry standard 15% commission.”
A “volume discount” can be is determined by the volume of spend a media agency makes with a media organisation each year.
However, the RTÉ spokesperson said that the “competitive marketplace” means that “volume discounts between media buying agencies and media organisations are commercially sensitive and not disclosed”.
Revelations this week led to Independent TD Michael McNamara calling for the licence fee to go.
“The RTÉ board has to go. The licence fee has to go,” he tweeted.
The RTÉ board has to go. The licence fee has to go.
— Michael McNamara TD (@MlMcNamaraTD) June 22, 2023
Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne said it is the biggest crisis RTE has faced in its modern history and added that the controversy “does not help the case” of TV licence fee reform.
“I don’t think RTÉ can make a case for an increase in the licence fee – I don’t have trust in how RTÉ has behaved,” said Byrne.
RTÉ announced on Friday that it would republish the remunerations paid to Tubridy since 2017 in order to “correct the record”.
The broadcaster also stated that the Barter Account used to make payments to Tubridy will be placed within the control of the Finance function and that specific controls will be put in place to the operation of that account.
The Remuneration Committee of the Board will also be given full oversight and approval of the terms of contracts relating to the top 10 most highly paid on-air presenters.
Until these processes are complete there will be a “pausing of all new material on air presenter contracts”, RTÉ stated.
Former press ombudsman and previous head of broadcast compliance in RTÉ, Peter Feeney, yesterday told RTÉ’s Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin that while the broadcaster had been through crises before, this one was “particularly bad”.
“It’s inconceivable that a deal such as has now been discovered, could have taken place without one or more of the RTÉ executive board knowing about it. I find it hard to believe there could only be one person,” he said.
Feeney added that he served as Freedom of Information officer for RTÉ for 20 years and would release pay details of RTÉ’s highest earners to newspapers each year.
“I just took it absolutely for granted that the figures that were being released are the accurate figures. And I’m quite flabbergasted to discover that it’s possible the figures that were being released were inaccurate.
“It would appear that RTÉ management didn’t want to acknowledge that the pay cut being taken by the top earning presenter wasn’t as low as they wanted so they disguised it.”
-With additional reporting from Christina Finn and Jamie McCarron
Trust will never be restored. Scrap the Television Tax if ye care about Irish Citizens.
@Chett Richards: Providing quality and objective public service broadcasting is a separate issue, and would be crazy to destroy that. However perhaps time to use license fee for one channel only and have that without advertising
@Roj Blake: Rte is far from objective.
@Roj Blake: “quality and objective public service broadcasting”, I’ll have whatever you’re smoking.
@Chett Richards: thankfully the vast majority of ordinary people are not ignorant racists and homophones
@Winston Smith: don’t smoke, but to live in the real world, not some conspiracy infected nightmare
@Chett Richards: the tv licence will never be scrapped but why not use it for some other project like free wifi in public places and let RTE stand on its own to feet like every other broadcaster ……i pay my tv licence but don’t watch RTE ….so let them support themselves like every other broadcaster….or let them go to a subscriptions service for thoes that watch it
@Roj Blake: Woeful excuse for a reply. No racists or homophobes here lad. Try harder.
@Chett Richards: The real danger is that if people don’t leave Ryan alone, he could be head-hunted by an overseas TV station – and what would we do then?
@Dave Ryan: Hi Dave, I see your points and respect them. Only thing is, how will they keep the TV Tax in existence if nobody pays it? From this point forward, THOUSANDS of households won’t see the merit in it, especially as it costs so much during a cost of living emergency.
@Roj Blake: absolutely. RTE2 television and 2FM should be run on a totally commercial basis and left to either sink or swim. Best to concentrate the licence fee on the main tv and radio channel to produce quality programming.
@Chett Richards: oh i don’t mean scrap it keep paying it so the revenue is coming in … just use it for something different and let rte fund itself like all other broadcasters do
@Dave Ryan: We read between the lines Davey, it’s alright..
@Chett Richards: pretty sure everyone agrees with scrapping the license but they will just take the tax to pay Doenitz from something else you pay so it’s gonna be shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic stuff . This is Ireland , they will put off making any decision until the story goes away , then they relabel the tax as something less and rince and repeat there’s nothing to see here …. Just watch
If the government refuse to handover taxpayers funds to RTE then the home owners who pay the TV licence should have the same right. There is absolutely no point in giving RTE money as clearly, they can’t be trusted with it.
@David Corrigan: Ryan’s extra pay per annum represents a mere 0.038% of license fee income per year. What they did was wrong
@Roj Blake: I couldn’t care less about Ryan or RTE. RTE needs to be closed down.
@David Corrigan: spot on,they’ve already well proven they can’t be trusted doesn’t need to be debated anymore,needs to be scrapped and maybe just keep the rte news now channel that’s it enough is enough, disgusting what they’re doing with huge sums of taxpayers money.
@Paddy C: They even sold the bit of land they had and that money is all gone too. Clearly, they have no interest in providing a proper service to the taxpayer who funds them. It’s all about maintaining the lavish lifestyles they believe they are entitled to have.
Do what someone on here suggested and divert all funds to TG4. They run a good service with only a fraction of the funds RTE steal. Obviously TG4 is managed by people who know what they are doing.
@David Corrigan: TG4 is wonderful.
@David Corrigan: no, it’s public service remit needs to be protected, and even separated from commercial
@David Corrigan: That is bordering on insanity. Without a reliable Irish broadcasting service, we would be dependent on social media and we all know about misinformation. Yes, it does need to be slimmed down and changes do have to be made but get rid of it, never. What RTE management did here was shameful but to shut down shop and deny 100′s of thousands their daily enjoyment is bordering on insanity and dictatorship.
@Roj Blake: Yet it never was separated from commerciality. Since when did RTÉ advertise for free? The real staff aren’t paid well. Contractors are overpaid to present.
Do they give away programme franchises? Is product placement simply a random act, or a carefully calculated deal kept secret from our own government until auditors finally uncover the extent of it?
People who barely have the money to get by are threatened with arrest if they watch on a (secondhand, or gift) television. Tell them their punitive fines are not commercially motivated – tell them there is no law requiring households to pay to watch RTÉ whether they do or not. Tell people resorting to food banks that we’re all in this together.
I’m afraid nobody under 70 believes that.
@BarryH: There will be changes for a while within RTE and in 12 to 18 months, they will be back at their messing again. In their minds, they are untouchable and accountable to nobody. That mindset will not change over night.
@David Corrigan: paid my license fee again as has been normal over the last 25+ years, but did it under protest for the 1st time this year. A mistake now, obviously. RTE are the fatted calf that assumes they’re sacrosanct. Normal staff are underpaid. ‘Talent’ is massively overpaid. Management are the usual disgrace, seen in many other semi states. An Post (latterly) excepted. Why do we accept it.
@Kenneth Finn: Don’t bother paying for it anymore. Protest via lack of payment. If enough people do it, it’ll force their greedy hands.
@David Corrigan: There where rumours that the head of An Post wasnt chosen as the new DG cos he would bring too much change and disruption to the operations like he did with An Post, while making them more succesful then they had been in recent times.
RTE dont want change they just want to ride the gravy train like so many others in so many other state owned or semi state owned companies.
This time they have been caught and people are rightly P Off about it.
Please please please let Joe Duffy be next
@Roy Dowling: Next what? Overpaid?
@Jim O’Sullivan: off air. He’s already overpaid.
@Roy Dowling: if the revenue he brings in is greater than his costs, then its sound economics to keep him
@Roj Blake: That would have to be proved by an external entity. RTE can’t be trusted to make you a nice cup of tea at this stage.
@David Corrigan: yes they can, their auditors and current board have shown they can be trusted to act
@Roj Blake: this is a fact. Ultimately these people are generating revenue through advertising, based on their popularity, and if they’re paid 10% of that revenue, by way of a fee every year, they’re well worth it to RTE.
@Roj Blake: still overpaid, no other broadcaster can afford those wages and if that’s the case well then why pay so much in the first place. Also the high earners are contractors and pay less tax than direct employees, double whammy on normal staff
@Roy Dowling: Joe is not an RTE employee
@Jim O’Sullivan: just next …….
I have little sympathy for RTE with how woke they have got in recent years.
@Burn Turf: what does woke mean? Give examples please. Is it that which does not neatly fit with your barnhouse country hick sence of conservatism?
@Glen OhAilpin: How’s the view down in Dalkey Glendarino?
@dave huston huston3: I like how you take a dig at the Journal whilst also reading and commenting on their articles.
Two questions I would like to ask are:
1. Was income tax paid on Ryan Tubridy’s top up and will revenue be involved.
(I’m taxed and pay USC on my measly pension)
2. If Catherine Martin knew about it in March, what did she do with the information between then and now and why did she wait until the story broke and feign surprise ?
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: Yes. RT declared ALL his income and paid his tax. This isn’t about anything legal/illegal. It is just about open disclosure.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Fraudulent accounting.
@Dave Barrett: evidence?
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: RT’s tax isn’t the issue. His company is probably paid a gross fee, plus VAT, and RT takes a salary out of that which is subject to statutory deductions.
@Michael Gantly: Surely the company was set up with the intention of concealing money?
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: False accounting is a crime . Misappropriation of public funds is a crime .
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: fraud squad need to open an investigation and ALL need to be involved garda rte government the lot of them. This needs investigating asap
I worked in RTE a decade ago on roof repairs and done a bit of work inside the buildings, my boss told me it was like pulling teeth to get properly paid off them. Now we know why, I have to say I was absolutely shocked how overstaffed it look. Also done bits for the OPW in various government buildings over the years. Worked in a few schools during term as well. Our of them all I would put RTE as the greatest dossers I ever came across, I would put OPW staff a close second, followed by teachers. Nurses appeared to be the only ones I seen doing a bit of work when I was in hospitals, do you see the trend here? They all get paid on a Friday regardless of what they do and wouldn’t last 6 months in the private sector. They greatest waste of taxpayers money is on people who have no incentive to do more than they should. The should completely close RTE and knock everything to the ground in Montrose and put a mix of housing on it. The government should then fund a start up public service station out on a green field and start a fresh. Keep it lean and purely for public broadcasting.
@quacquac 51: You can’t make a sweeping statement about ALL employees in the public sector – it was from what you saw and you perceive it to be the case for everyone. Teachers do nothing? If they do then don’t send your kids to school.
@quacquac 51: Best description of the public service that I have ever seen. Bang on about no incentive whatsoever do make any effort, just get paid no matter what they do. Should have a criminal investigation into RTE by a non Irish entity.
@quacquac 51:
Quacquac for taoiseach! Are you running for office anytime soon? God help us!
Disband the station and give the funding to TG4 instead. I’m sure they could make an English language based successor to RTE no problem that has a much higher cultural appeal than RTE 1 or 2
Trust restored?
I never believed a word out of them in the first place.
@Winston Smith: considering all the manure you post, you’re so far detached from reality nothing you say is believable
All RTE do is spout radical left wing nonsense anyways. Only good thing to ever come from RTE is the programme Reeling in the years and the sport
@Joe Heisenberg: Left wing? Since the foundation of RTE it is a propaganda tool for the government of the day. Present government certainly now have RTE over a barrel. RTE will be more than enthusiastic to push the FFG/ Green agenda…..and that’s definitely not left wing.
@Joe Heisenberg: often the looney left TDs do indeed appear to get coverage far in excess of their 1-2% poll ratings.
@Paul Furey: Nazi’s socialist? Tell that to the left wing workers of Germany and Europe murdered by them..As for FFG / Greens being center. Thatcher would be proud of their economic policy…The banks bailed out by the ordinary taxpayers who were then forced into austerity to refill the coffers and repay into the next generation . If you think FFG/ Greens are center…you are sadly mistaken.
@Joe Heisenberg: Reeling in the years? You think that is good? Really?
(Many people have zero interest in watching sport. I find it absolutely boring.)
@Paul Furey: The Nazis were left wing socialists? That’s just mental. Enough Internet for me today anyway….
@Mike Spillane: They called them national socialists, but they weren’t anything socialist, or left wing. The word Nazi originates from that.
“abbreviation representing the pronunciation of Nati- in Nationalsozialist ‘national socialist’, probably by analogy with Sozi, from Sozialist ‘socialist’.”
(Oxford Languages)
A gang of psychopaths gathered around Hitler, intent on robbing, taking land, enslaving, etc, and were the core. Very similar to Putin’s gang.
@Joe Heisenberg: the reason youre arguing that is because of the topical talk about gender ideology, which is leader to a wider effort by many including the global Christian, muslim, so on right to try and ‘remind’ people they should view all lgbt people as abnormal Or worse, wicked. Some of just get on with our lives, or desire to. We like you have questions over the covid handling, corruption, behaviours by the state. Anyway, rte is centre right. Because Ireland is still mainly centre right. It is absolutely not far left and a large minority watch its more rural or conservative programmes
@A D: reeling in the years isnt rte anyway. Haha do u not think whether its good depends on whether you support the Irish stories it highlights, the social change? many people I see sharing clips from the recent series just wanted to portray people as all like Heisenberg here does, ‘pro abort woke types’ or whatever. Anyway, rte outsource RITY
The only way to restore trust is make
them go Subscription and Stop Asking All of us to pay for a service we hardly use. Enough Really IS Enough!!!
@Mick Hanna: I felt hard done by when I’d the channels taken out but had the TV and from all the years of that ad – who knows who got the kickback for that – ‘if you have a TV, you MUST have a TV licence’ rang in my head like the angelus bells
@Mick Hanna: And so say most of us!
Helen McEntee believes that RTE have the full support of the public .
@mixterz: God love her but she is the most complete Yes Person I have ever seen.
@mixterz: She must be pregnant again?
@mixterz: Mcetee also defames Irish women, young men etc whove been attacked and assaulted in Cork. Dublin, sligo etc because she refuted the blatant increase in urban crime across Ireland. Not that the assailants nationality should matter but if allowed thats the next nugget she’d have said, in order to portray Irish people as racist. She STILL thinks shes a legit politician, even though shes a failure.
@Emmet Murphy: sure shes like LEO, she hates Ireland all she cares about is herself.
@David Corrigan: God wouldnt love her. shes about to become as dangerous and untouchable as Leo. She should resign and work in centra or better yet somewhere the public dont go
Admittedly I now only use RTE for hurling and Ear To The Ground and even the latter is turning in to a hipster, tree hugging directed show.
I used to be a great fan of Radio 1 for late evening documantrys and really good Irish programming. Sunday mornings with John Bowman’s documentary and Sunday Misseleony. All these are now littered with political agendas and fluffy PC bull excrement.
Their condescending ‘public broadcasting’ during the covid was a disgrace in my opinion.
Granted some people love it but I stopped paying the license fee two years ago and make no apology whatsoever about that. I would advocate for it’s disbandment 100%.
If you listened to RTE ‘news’ only you’d not have a clue what’s going on in the world.
@all devices: News and current affairs in general are done extremely well by RTE, just because the tin foil lot don’t like their reporting doesn’t mean it’s wrong, quite the reverse.
@all devices: In fairness, quite a lot of things broadcast are political. Presumably you meant that it wasn’t your sort of politics.
@Roj Blake: news and current affairs are NOT done ‘extremely well by rte’ ..id say if you surveyed the fairly demoralised Irish as they are, most would comfortably say assuming theyre moderates that RTE is pure FG spin.its also routinely fairly anti working class. Key to my point: water charges..
Invalidates yours.
Claire Byrne is currently conducting her own poll survey inside the RTÉ canteen that will show the vast majority of people actually think otherwise.
This controversy will halt Tubridy’s run for the Áras before he even left the stating blocks. ;>)
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: The path to the Aras is now an open road for Bertie Ahern….Smugly grinning Tubirty should have been paid in cash…Old dog for the long road.
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: His run? Where do you get your information, facebook?
@Johnny Kelly: Where do you get yours from??
Do you happen to have a brother Noel by any chance??
Barter account’ run by RTÉ’s commercial division is at the heart of the Ryan Tubridy salary scandal. Writing anonymously, but known to the ‘Sunday Independent’, a senior Irish media ad agency figure estimates national broadcaster paid over €50m to agencies in the last 10 years, via a secretive credit note system
Very interesting reading in the Sunday independent. A lot of hush hush stuff went on. RTE should now be dismantled or make it paper view. No more public funding should be put into this quagmire. Public outrage from this is very apparent. People should not pay licence fees.
Why do RTE need so many radio stations and tv channels? Surely one of each is enough? Also chamber choir, philharmonic choir and god knows how many orchestras? Our taxes pay for a Garda band and an Army band which are both superb and more than enough to represent us at state functions. Pair the whole thing back it’s an endless money pit.
@Ali murray: The orchestras are. SUPERB!
Ideal forum for this question:
If I have a TV, but no TV package hooked up, ergo, cannot receive television signals externally, do I need a license for said TV.
Television Definition: a system for converting visual images (with sound) into electrical signals, transmitting them by radio or other means, and displaying them electronically on a screen.
Please note the word ‘transmitting’. I take it this means ‘external’ transmissions?
@Keth Tgi: You need the license for the TV. It has the capability for detecting the television signals.
Ryan’s private savings.
Long past time it should be sold off! No more burdens of license fees or drain on the taxpayer.
Keep one channel for independent news and current affairs, maybe domestic sports . Sell off the rest
I pay my licence fee every year, but when I think about it, though, I honestly can’t remember the last time I watched or listened to RTE! I wonder how many others have found themselves doing the same or only tuning in fairly infrequently?
It a spend force, with rubbish viewing, and listening. Paying licence fee for that, we are supporting exorbitant salaries and the symphony orchestra,
Sack the lot of them at the top. Taking the taxpayer for fools. Tubs did what we would all do, maximise salary. It’s the management who lied to the Dail committee that need to get the heave-ho.
@Paul whitehead: I’m not terribly fond of Tubs, I agree with you, perhaps he didn’t fully understand himself, I know that sounds unlikely, my understanding is that Rte are only obliged to publish what they officially pay their “stars,”
It seems the Renault money was extra and initially paid by Renault, it was not official Rte pay so didn’t need to be published, even when Renault ceased to pay the money for appearances/whatever, Rte decided to pay it which was an agreement between Renault & Ryan’s & Rtes management, Ryan seemingly gave her a flustered first statement,
his management said in a round about way that they make deals in their clients behalf,
how I made sense of that is clients are not told fully,
it’s all confusing, nobody even seems to know what a barter account actually is.
Just read an article on Independent about it, the fan is heavily soiled.
As per usual the government is employing an “external review” to resolve the matter…. As per usual this process is used so the public will have moved on from the issue by the time the review is complete and secondly some connected individual can rewarded as the “external reviewer”….smoke and mirrors.
Am I missing something here…? How does Tubridy seem to think he will be back at work on Monday week…? Surely his career is in tatters..?
High time RTE started to paddle it’s own canoe. No more liceanc fee , Sink or Swim.
If all that money was missing from tubs account I’m sure he would have noticed,quickly!
It speaks volumes that the same mods who delete 75% of the comments on other articles are willing to let anything go on these RTÉ scandal pieces. Frankly, The Journal can go get in the bin along with RTÉ.
We could do without some of the rubbish they churn out such as the Rose of Tralee which is long long past its sell by date.
@Playmisty4me: fair city.is crap
And rte,s obsession with gender equality makes for crap.programes
.
@Victor Feldman: The absolute worst actors I’ve ever seen in Fair City…omg brutal lol
Give the license fee to TG4, so as they don’t need advertising. And let RTE solely rely on advertising.
@AnthonyK: Bloody hell there’s enough adsnon telly already – They’d have to go American and show ads every 5 minutes…
Tubridy’s hidden payments makes cover of Forbes.
@Philip Duffy: Tubridy is covering Forbes, now that is news.
Does anyone have a number for revenue?
As an Irish man I don’t trust my own people. I don’t trust rte I don’t trust the government. I don’t trust the church. We are all rotten to the core and corrupt given half the chance
@had the same problem with them here: Yes everybody in the world is bent.
Adverts v’s Lisense Fee:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there something within the EU rules about having one or the other – either Adverts or TV license to support a station. The theorised issue being that RTE is breaking this rule? I’m not suggesting this is occuring, but if anyone knows of such breaking of EU riules perhaps they could enlighten me?
It wasn’t that long ago that Dee Forbes was calling for an increase in the TV licence fee in line with other EU State broadcasters.I guess it makes sense now.
US and Canada for example don’t have TV licence fees so why does ireland have these fees???
Also state broadcasters are a biased lot depending on which government is in power, the won’t admit it but that how it is.
@roj Blake less than 0.4% of the world population died mostly over 80 or unhealthy. That not a pandemic just because the media say so from information got from so called medical experts that were making buckets of money from it. If you take the jab you won’t get COVID they said, put the mask on to stop the spread they said. A load of nonsense.
@brendan C5: all vaccines reduce infection rates and hospitalisations, a primary school child can see that from the pre and poor vaccination data. Though hardly surprising anti vax lack basic sums skills
About time RTE started to Paddle it’s own canoe. it’s been living off the backs of Liceance payer for long enough . Sink or swim time.
We’ve all had a good rip on FGFF, and the guys in that (guys meaning the men). Funny thing is Forbes and Kennedy, as in Kathleen Kennedy of Lucas film (as it is now under the control of Disney) seem to have now brought (if in part) both of these once great institutions down, or at least, to their knees.
All this after that nauseating display of self congratulation in his last show. Yuck!
And this is why i never will and never did pay for my tv license
How can FF and FG be trusted after the tribunals.
Trust is easy to lose, so very hard to restore. I think there are very difficult times ahead for RTE.
My personal opinion regarding Tubridy is that he did know what was going on. I think it will be very difficult for him to get anything here (unless with his old friends in RTE).
If anyone knows of any petition that has started to get the license fee system overhauled maybe post the details here if allowed? This could be a golden opportunity to get them to change something they’ve been harping on about for years.
Close rte,
Realistically speaking, a downgrade if RTE won’t affect the governments demand for a TV license, or going forward a media license. The funds raised will simply be redistributed into the gov coffers for something else.
Will they get a bonus for getting caught??
Laura H. Sorry I can’t respond directly, whilst I agree a sweeping statement is never the best way to go in order to forward an argument. I will back up my part by adding the company I work for takes 80 percent of it’s work from public procurement, so I’m regularly working in public funded workplaces, whether they be schools, hospitals, libraries, and many government agencies. So with that knowledge is what I based my assumptions on. I’m probably more qualified to make a sweeping statement as a school teacher working in the same school the last 8 years. My apologies if I upset your Sunday morning. Regarding my children, both the wife and myself don’t really care what primary school babysits them at the moment as we both have to work at the moment. We’ll concentrate more on their schooling when they enter secondary school, for now we just want them to be safe during the day.
@quacquac 51: And yet you again use an inappropriate statement referring to teachers as babysitters – get off that high horse of yours. I’ve seen many a contractor win a contract through the public sector tendering system – used to be LAQuotes..not sure what it’s called now – and they’ve been substandard, slow, billed for over-runs on jobs due to them being very lax about it, Paddy sitting on his arse having a cup of tea with the twenty other lads for an hour and a half on a 15 min break…but I’m not making a sweeping statement. My apologies if I upset your Sunday morning.
@quacquac 51: .Must add, your grammar is appalling, obviously you didn’t listen in school as your mother only ‘seen’ it as a babysitting facility and gave you a colouring book and a pack of crayons for 7 years
@Laura H: Read the small print Laura, contributors aren’t allowed to denigrate anyone’s grammar mistakes.
@Pat Barry: Ha..after he denigrating all public sector staff..I’m sorry if I hurt his feelings that he should brush up on his grammar boo hoo
As I predicted on Friday, RTE now hiding behind the “we can’t comment while there is an ongoing investigation” and I’m wondering what medical ailment Ms Forbes will conjure up that will prevent her appearing in front of Oirechtas committee this week.
People who like RTE definitely like garbage, and they pay for it!
TV Licence Inspectors are reading comments, I love my National TV and I contribute to Eurovision Song Contest. Long Live RTÉ.
Give licence fee, to TG4 and let Rte go row their own boat!
Do they honestly think people would pay the licence fee if it was “optional”……..what a silly poll.
They will Never restore my trust in them. Overpaid presenters, cheap programming, endless bloody repeats of the Same old movies, a Bizarre Obsession with Bond films! Yeah, great value for money, My Arse!!!
The current debacle is more a study of sociology; what happens if you let this group have power? The name RTE isn’t the problem as genuine public service broadcasting is really important, unless you actually want to be gaslit by the bilge in our free press. The problem here is greed and deceit by individual humans. This is evident in every part of the society we have created. The vapid accumulation of wealth is everywhere and we’re all guilty of it. This public outcry is very much warranted but at the same time, the motives behind it act as a mirror of ourselves. Throwing a group (which each of us stood by and allowed to fester and foment) under a bus, is as meaningful as the slaughter of a herd of swine in Gergasa. This isn’t RTE; this is us.
@Irish love this shy…: I agree with you. But I didn’t generalise greed, I said it was widespread. What we are all critical of, me included, is the abuse power, entitlement and greed, which exists far and beyond RTE. That is why I mentioned Gergasa; we focus on scapegoats to make ourselves feel better.
That’s because they are dishonest and bending tax laws and the like
I know the top “stars” in RTE have taken wage cuts but they’re still way too high. I find it impossible to listen to Joe Duffy when he’s talking about prices going up and how difficult ordinary people have, with him on his crazy salary.
And why don’t RTE have sponsorship of Morning Ireland? It’s the most listened to programme on radio, allegedly, yet it doesn’t have a sponsor. How many millions have been lost on that? And if you listen closely to the ads on RTE, a large percentage are promos for other RTE show.
And I’d love to know is the RTE Guide losing money. Again, I checked it recently, and there was practically ZERO advertising in it, and I’d say its sales aren’t great.
And 2FM, is that making or losing money? But everything seems to be hidden, even though we pay a huge share of their income.
RTE need to cop on, their listenership is mostly elderly, the younger generation listen to Today FM or Newstalk, they cannot keep depending on license fees to keep paying over the top wages to so called stars. George Lee another example, nearly on €200,000 and what does he do?
Laura h, well if my grammar is so bad then surely my teachers are to blame. Ouch you walked into that one. My mother passed long before I entered secondary school. Ouch, let’s keep my mother out of it Laura, it’s a bit of Sunday morning banter, have a good day. Mayo to beat Galway.
@quacquac 51: It’s not banter when you’re attacking all public sector employees.
Anyways yes, it’s Sunday so will leave the hammering to Galway from Mayo. Have to, Gran from there, damn.
Disband the cabal.. from the top down ASAP.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Shut it down!
asking us to pay the TV licence is is like asking to pay a British gas bill, don’t use it why pay for it?
I must admit, I feel sorry for Ryan Tubridy as his career has finished for good. I don’t think he will be welcome on radio also. He should start looking for other jobs, like truck driver etc.
@Lynda: Being a truck driver takes a great amount of skill and long hours. His “talent” wouldn’t be any good for that. Perhaps he should repay the money he got due to his “error of judgement” in doing nothing about it as these types usually put it.
@Jim Connolly: :)
@Lynda: half serious points aside, why would anyone in their right mind feel sorry for him? thats the stockholm syndrome
The feedback is from a questionaire given to readers of the Daily Mail.
Hardly scientific.
@Johnny Kelly: No it isn’t. It’s a survey that was given to people who are on the Amarach Research panel. The only input the Daily Mail had was in contracting Amarach Research to carry it out.
@Johnny Kelly: As you see, they haven’t added the sample size. It depends on how many people they asked – if it was a couple of thousand, maybe it is typical of the area. I’m assuming here that the area polled was the RTÉ canteen
Laura… Lol, easy to get you vexed, if you’re angry about having to work tomorrow then just doss for the day, my taxes will still drop into your account Friday.
@quacquac 51: Well you just bring your Barry’s tea bags with you and a cushion for the chair.
@quacquac 51: I get paid Thursday btw, skip all the way to the bank on a paltry wage contrary to what ye private sector workers think – look at the figures. And I work hard, have done so since I started, am committed to helping people – I’m not one of those me fein-ers, yes it annoys me when I see some climbing rank when in my opinion they don’t deserve it but that happens everywhere, some people are good at kissing ass, I’m not…and I don’t want to be so yes, making sweeping statements annoys me when I know I do my job really well.
Ryan always showed great sympathy to guests with problems maybe he needs some sympathy shown . But as we see a show of sympathy has a price.
From Saint to Sinner in a whisker
@Ray Martin: Is that just a performance for the camera?
Nonsense keep with the TV licence for 4 channels on TV as they broadcast more UK programs.
@Clau O’Riordan: for sure, agree with you in principal. that said, the bbc is completely untrustorthy and behaves shadily surrounding telling Britain WHAT or HOW to think. Its not independent. Itv claims to be. not sure who channel 4 represents, everything is about diversity and as a gay lad myself, it seems thats not to be inclusive as regards working class Britain
Just can RTE and other state broadcasting efforts. Let the market decide.
Poor aul Tubs eh, he didn’t even realise he had an extra odd €300k in his account, ah well at least we know why he’s left The Late Late Show now… String Bean my heart bleeds for him
Every person should stop buying Television Licence as BBC can only has Licence UTV only has Adds RTE has both and always looking for more money
People don’t trust RTE because of a pay discrepancy?
What about the decades of lying to the Irish public?
Other Irish media won’t call out RTE on their lies because they’re all trying to get on RTE – they pay well, don’t you know?
The only thing RTE is good for is convincing their viewers that they do a good job.
In a fair and objective response at this stage, we should just send everyone who since say the Irish finally took their frustration at the skull duggery, privatisation & worse to the streets over the water charges, watched engaged and trusted in rte then so around since 2014 and take them to a ship that can just pushed out to sea/ Its for everyones sake including their own. They shouldnt get to vote and engage in our (embarrassing excuse for) a democracy
With time, trust can always be restored.
@John: I wonder about that. Are there no Irish people who were arrested for not paying RTÉ for owning their own television? Will those people be able to get a visa to enter other countries? Is it going to be wiped from the record that they have? All over a mandatory tax.
Resigning before the Dail questions can be put is not acceptable. Neither is making/taking golden parachute payoffs, which likely won’t be publicised. Or hiding behind GDPR/commercial ‘agreements’. If trust is ever to be restored they need to start this week. And these 1st moves don’t augur well. We haven’t learned have we??
What a mess this is. I don’t expect full candor this week. This seems to go deep and beyond some top up payments. I have been in finance in three countries for many years and have never heard of such a vehicle as a barter account. Typically lots of “don’t look at me”, senior finance, legal and commercial staff must have known. I see no reference to HR? It’s laughable that so called remuneration c’tee had no oversight of “talent” contracts. Lots of people apparently operated in blissful ignorance? Why are such folks employed?
If Tubridy is brought back on TV or the Radio, that will be the ultimate joke on Irish people.
When will we ever learn ?
RTE are an in house organization and have failed the viewers.
what is a “barter account” ?
@Arkay Kar: a means to hide payments. Not by any means an appropriate vehicle for payments to “staff”.
I noticed D Four bs has jumped ship thus ending her two day suspension which is the only punishment anyone in RTE will have to suffer, followed by a lawsuit for lack of procedure, bullying, breach of Data, scapegoating etc, and whatever you’re having yourself.
have your say