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LAST UPDATE | 2 Jul 2024
THE TV LICENCE fee should be scrapped and RTÉ should instead be funded through Coimisiún na Meán, the Dáil’s Oireachtas media committee is to recommend.
Government ministers are still at loggerheads over the future of the TV licence fee and RTÉ funding.
Media Minister Catherine Martin met with the three coalition leaders last night to discuss the issue, which was the latest in a series of bilateral meetings with the aim of finding a consensus.
Martin is advocating for direct Exchequer funding for RTÉ, stating last week that she would like to see “five to seven year ring fenced” funding for the national broadcaster.
The minister has been fighting an uphill battle as the idea is being opposed by Tánaiste Micheál Martin, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe, as well as the new Finance Minister Jack Chambers.
However, her idea of abolishing the licence fee and replacing it with direct government funding is being endorsed by the committee.
The committee’s report, seen by The Journal, recommends that multi-annual funding arrangements should be index-linked basis for public service media and public service content providers.
No decision reached
It is understood there was a “detailed discussion” at the meeting last night with the party leaders, as well as Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe and the finance minister. However, no decision was made.
Government sources have said a decision on the matter will be made by the end of July, but not necessarily by the time the Dáil rises on 11 July.
Speaking on RTÉ News at One Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien also indicated that the decision could be brought after the Dáil rises, stating that that the Cabinet will continue to meet in the month of July.
Donohoe said last week that he does not believe the TV licence fee should be scrapped and replaced with direct Exchequer funding for RTÉ.
He said the government will have to make up the shortfall and that ultimately, money which could be used for social welfare increases or childcare would go to the national broadcaster to fill the licence fee gap.
“We shouldn’t let that happen,” he said. However, in response, the media minister said “multi-annual” funding would avoid budget wrangling.
However, senior sources have noted that there are many agencies that would prefer to have multi-annual funding, such as the HSE, and that one rule cannot just be applied to one area and not another.
Martin said the alternative is the reform of the licence fee to a broadcasting tax, which would be collected by Revenue, which she believed would be not be “palatable” to the public.
RTÉ officials are also due to appear at the Oireachtas Committee on Arts and Media later to discuss the various issues relating to the reform of the national broadcaster.
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My guess is that after careful consideration from the government for many, many months, everything will remain the same.
@KTH: They’ll keep kicking the can down the road till after the next election. Same for any settlement of the bogus self employment/mass social welfare fraud they’ve been committing
Bin RTE. Why is it that FFG love privatising everything but they need to keep RTE? Let it stand on its own two legs. It doesn’t serve a purpose these days with internet and satellite.
@Keyser Söze: One wonders how all the Local Radio Stations make a profit
They get no State Handouts
They employ Talented Competent Presenters
Virgin formally tv3 have been able to run their channels without public funding. In the U.K people pay a licence to BBC but BBC don’t have advertisment breaks during programmes. But R.T.E T.V and radio channels are receiving advertising money with lots of ads. So why can’t they survive like other broadcasting channels
@Gerard byrne: Paying for Top Talent…??????
@David Murray: Rte has no what you Call talent only Spongers making a.living on people who don’t want what they have which is Nothing. Get rid of rte and licence fee asap…….
@Gerard byrne: big staff numbers in comparison
They can take as long as they like. Not getting a penny for that
@Karen Marten: And so say all of us.
Won’t be paying for a licence our cost of living has me crippled and my tax money pays for too many anyways!
Let RTE fund itself.. Feel free to take a licence fee towards increased funding towards education and broadband, staffing hospitals.. my tax money filling pockets of glorified pen pushers is not how I want it. Pump it back into society and stop feeding a lost cause. YouTube, Netflix etc…waaay better and I already pay for them on which a tax is also levied.. so quit the BS
Why is the option to just shut it down not being considered?
Or at least to make it subscription.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I think the answer to that is obvious.
Surely a committee will have to be setup so millions can be spent on this at the taxpayers expense? Then ministers can say they’re waiting on the findings of this report which will contain little to no useful knowledge at all, if only to serve as a delay tactic for the ministers and their many many advisors who are already employed by the taxpayer to make these decisions in the first place.
It’s high time the Public Apron strings were Cut from this clearly Out of Touch organisation. Enough IS Enough! Let them survive on Subscription!!!
Why is nobody suggesting we just get rid of it? Across the board there seems to be a blanket view that RTE must remain publicly funded. Personally I’d rather just end public service broadcasting. It’s not like they are impartial in any way.
Don’t want RTE, don’t need RTE, let it survive on advertising and subscriptions from people who do want it!
Everyone should stop paying and away with RTE
Anyone that works in rte couldn’t lie straight in bed .how is dee time to send primetime investigates to Cork.
Michael Martin needs to man up and listen to ordinary people
Well, maybe proper answers from RTE and not just hands out for more money would be a start, no garda investigation,
No claw back from main people who walked.
Then, direct funding. Tax payers are owed back millions from national broadcaster.
The worst comment they have made so far is they should keep it as is because people are paying it…
As everyone has a TV or similar access to rte services, scrap the licence and fund it for 5 years on a graduated reducing scale…self financing in 5 years or bye bye.
I only paid my TV licence for some radio and in the hope that TG4 gets a little. I haven’t watched any RTE stations in 5 years. The fact that we can be called to court for not paying it yet precisely nobody is held responsible for the scandals is immoral by any civilised standard. Furthermore, to add insult to our injury those responsible were provided with fat lumpsums and large pensions. It reminds me of the Anglo Irish Bank and the recession. They’ll give us mass PTSD with this BS.
Haven’t paid my licence in 15 years. And never intend to
I know where l would shove the licence fee that’s for sure.Our elected politicians never listen and are a waste of space….
The turncoats in Leinster House want to maintain taxpayer funding, (either through the license fee or direct funding, either way we pay), so that they can continue to use it as a disinformation stream for it’s agenda.
One of the biggest decisions this country has ever made about it’s future and it’s sovereignty was completed by opting in to the EU Migration Pact which was done under the radar last week, this coup was partly achieved because RTE News chose to ignore this big news story even though unbiased news delivery is part of their remit. That is the contract, we pay a license fee in return for an unbiased public service broadcasting and it is supposed to enrich our lives and our knowledge.
We had a legally available opt out clause, that was democratically won, by us, in Lisbon Treaty’s one and two, we could have used it to avoid the legal contract we have now entered into despite the majority of people wanting that option to be taken. As a compromise, that we never even discussed was available, we could have opted out but at the same time aligned our migration policy with the pact to see if it worked for Ireland and then left or remained in the fullness of time depending on the outcome. If RTE was doing it’s job many more people would have known that, they would also know that Brussels now decides how many economic migrants we can take, and that refusal to take each one will cost the taxpayer E20k a pop, and that every day approximately 40 new asylum seekers arrive here into the taxpayers care, and that the costs will be in the region of E10m a day for the care of current numbers of 30,000 asylum seekers, or that estimated figures may go as high as 100,000 and more, or, lastly, that if we don’t process the applications quick enough we will be fined.
No-one should pay the license fee under these circumstances unless RTE is unbiased and has no connection to the agenda of the government of the day, otherwise you are paying your hard earned to an organisation who goes on to then betray you using those same funds.
End of July when the cowards will pass it on to revenue to collect it and flock off on holidays. $¢umbags.
How about funding it from the slush fund or the golden handshakes of the executive wrong doers abandoning the ship I see our little green minister has no stomach for proper accountability like garda investigation
Don’t own a TV,haven’t paid a TV licence in three years,rte is done,need new ideas.
@Daniel Roche: why would you need to pay in the first place if you don’t have a tv. That’s a bit like saying I don’t drive a car so I’m not paying for a driving licence.
I won’t pay until , apply mobile phone licence!
@sakk sa: What about taxing bicycles when you are at it? Don’t be giving them ideas!!!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: well bin companies are now going to hike their prices. Don’t be surprised if they do tax bikes, air we breathe, paths we walk on.
Kite flying coming up to the elections
Sell/close down 2FM, sell/close down RTE Guide for a start. How much are both of these losing? There is absolutely no accountability with RTE. I don’t buy RTE Guide but I checked a few times recently and there is practically zero advertising in it, same goes for 2FM, very little advertising on it. Surely both are losing money.
After that, do all the obvious things like reduce salaries of top “stars”.
When revenue collects the TV fee, it becomes a Tax
@Peter Jo: IT IS a TAX.
RTE & the great cover up continues, an organization & individuals above the law & prosecution, in comparison to how Licence Fee holders who conscientally object to paying for the abuses & cover up, can be jailed for non compliance. Proof if ever any were needed, that the Elites in RTE are above the law & treated differently to the average taxpayer & licence fee holder, a stain on Irish society, shameful what has happened & what’s continuing to happen.
@SV3tN8M4: +1
R.t e Jack of all trades master of none.
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