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Public trust in RTÉ fell to just 32% in internal poll taken in wake of payments scandal

Public trust plummeted to historic lows in the wake of the Ryan Tubridry payments scandal.

INTERNAL POLLING IN RTÉ found that public trust in the organisation plummeted to historic lows in the wake of the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal, halving in an extremely short space of time.

Newly-released data shows that just 32% of the public had a positive view of the state broadcaster in surveys carried out between July and September 2023.

The figure had been 69% in the three months beforehand.

The quarterly survey was taken in the weeks following the revelations that secret payments totalling €345,000 had been made to presenter Ryan Tubridy over six years but went unreported by RTÉ.

The figures show that the broadcaster likely has a distance to go before fully regaining trust from the public.

“The data gives the clearest picture yet of just how damaging to public confidence in RTÉ its governing scandals really were,” academic and researcher Mark Cullinane, who specialises in Irish public service media, told The Journal.

Cullinane is a former member of RTÉ’s Audience Council and is a post-doctoral sociologist who is writing a book on Irish public service media.

The figures were released to Cullinane last week following Freedom of Information requests.

When he took on the job of RTÉ director-general, Kevin Bakhurst said that his key objective was to “restore trust” that had been “severely damaged” by the payments scandal.

“It is RTÉ itself which has elevated public trust and the restoration of it to the most central position in the rhetoric of management and stated organisation priorities,” Cullinane said.

The trust figure increased to 40% for the final quarter of 2023 and remained there at the start of 2024.

No updated figures have been released since.

RTÉ annual report

Cullinane pointed to the data suggesting a loss in trust that was “more than twice the severity of the drop” indicated by RTÉ in its most recent annual report for 2023.

RTÉ’s annual report claimed that 52% of the public had trust in the broadcaster, but this was based on averaging out the figures over the course of the year, which hid the impact of the severe drop in support.

It had set itself a target of 75% of respondents agreeing that “RTÉ is trustworthy”, which it failed to meet; the report conceded this was due to a “significant breach” of the public’s trust arising from the payment scandal.

By using an annualised average, Cullinane said it “served to obscure the depth of the impact” of its governance scandals which came to light mid-way through the year.

When asked whether it should have made the figure clear in its annual report, RTÉ said it would continue to use the current method.

“RTÉ’s Annual Report covers the entire year, not any specific quarter. This remains the case when figures go up, as well as down,” a spokesperson said.

“The figure you are referring to for Q3 is the lowest point over the course of 2023. These trust scores have increased since then,” it added.

Bailout

For Cullinane, he believes the figures are crucial due to RTÉ receiving €725m in public funding over the next three years as part of the terms of its bailout.

However, he said that RTÉ had delayed the release of the information by first deciding that it should not be provided due to potential impact on editorial concerns, alongside a claim of commercial sensitivity.

The decision was appealed to the Office of the Information Commissioner – which rules on such cases – but RTÉ relented this month ahead of any final decision and provided Cullinane with the data.

Cullinane said that RTÉ’s “opposing the timely release” of the polling it holds focused on public trust “go against the promised new regime of maximum transparency” by the company.

“Given the self-evident urgency of the need to renew its legitimacy with the public, the apparent persistence of old patterns and ways of doing things would seem to be a blockage to the renewal of that trust, and something I would urge the new management regime to take seriously,” Cullinane said.

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