RTE must pivot focus from personalities back to public service, says Tanaiste

Micheal Martin expressed concern that the ‘culture of the agent’ had become predominant within the broadcaster.

Micheal Martin said there was a need for a ‘root and branch’ examination of how RTE operated going forward (PA) (PA Wire)

RTE must rebalance its focus away from personality presenters and back to its public service ethos, Ireland’s deputy premier has said.

Micheal Martin expressed concern that the “culture of the agent” had become predominant within the public service broadcaster, to the detriment of the interests of the collective organisation.

He said there was a need for a “root and branch” examination of how RTE operated going forward.

His comments come amid the ongoing furore that has engulfed the broadcaster following revelations last month that it under-reported the salary paid to star presenter Ryan Tubridy, failing to disclose 345,000 euro worth of additional payments to him between 2017 and 2022.

The crisis has since widened amid further revelations about RTE’s internal financial, accounting and governance practices.

Many of the issues emerged when senior RTE executives faced an intensive grilling at two parliamentary committees in Dublin last week.

Much of the focus has centred on the workings of a UK-based “barter” account used by RTE to pay for certain services and tickets and trips related to corporate client entertaining. Some Irish parliamentarians have branded it a “slush fund”.

Cabinet is expected sign off on terms of reference for a government-commissioned external review into culture and governance at RTE when it meets on Tuesday.

Media minister Catherine Martin is also set to use powers under Ireland’s Broadcasting Act to appoint a designated auditor to go in and examine RTE’s accounts.

RTE operates on a dual funding model, with 55% of its income, 200 million euro a year, brought in by way of a licence fee.

The rest is generated through commercial advertising revenues.

“I think we are concerned in terms of how the culture of the agent seems to have been predominant over the collective so to speak,” Mr Martin told RTE Radio One on Monday.

“There’s always a balance between the personality, the predominance of personality in broadcasting and in journalism, by definition that is a fact.

“But the balance perhaps has clearly gone the wrong way. And in terms of public service broadcasting, I think we need to rebalance that.”

Mr Martin said the pay and conditions of lower earners in RTE also had to be looked at, as he expressed concern at reports of some workers being employed on effectively “zero hours” contracts.

“So I do think this is an opportunity to take a root and branch look at this,” he added.

Mr Martin said dividing RTE’s funding streams and spending between public and commercially sourced money was complicated due to areas of “overlap”.

“But it is fair to say that many in the print industry and maybe in other channels might feel at times that the commercial revenue is used maybe to unfairly advantage RTE, and that’s something that needs to be genuinely looked at,” he said.

Mr Martin insisted many of those issues could be addressed by recommendations in last year’s Future of Media Commission in Ireland.

Speaking about the auditor the Government is set to send into RTE, the Tanaiste said the aim would be to come back with a “very clear, transparent picture”.

He said there was a need for a “strong, coherent governance structure” and suggested more formal links between executives and the board, with the former reporting to the latter on a more fixed basis.

An independent senator in the Oireachtas parliament, Ronan Mullen, is pursuing a private member’s bill in Ireland’s Seanad that would seek to ensure the highest salary in RTE does not exceed that paid to the country’s media minister, 195,000 euro a year.

Mr Mullen’s proposals would also require that any RTE salary equivalent to the pay of a TD, 107,000 euro, would need to be made public.

Mr Martin said he did not favour a pay cap on earnings within RTE.

“I would much prefer to look at the pay and conditions of those who are not earning anything like that in RTE and get that right,” he said.

The Tanaiste added: “I’m just slow to go in for the cap. It’s simplistic, it’s popular to say that, but the actual working out of that over time can be actually more problematic than people might think right now.”

Public expenditure minister Paschal Donohoe declined to be drawn on whether he favoured a cap.

“I would want to know what would be the impact of that in RTE, what would that mean for their ability to deliver on their mandate,” he told reporters in Dublin on Monday.

He said that “far, far more clarity and transparency” was needed around how existing pay policy at RTE was implemented, and said it was not acceptable to the Government, parliament or the TV licence fee-paying public that the wrong information was given to them.

Asked whether details of RTE finances and accounts going back decades were needed, Mr Donohoe said: “I’m not sure if decades was warranted. It does appear that we’re going to need information that did stretch back a number of more years than is currently available.”

He also said there was a need for a “degree of proportionality in the debate and a degree of balance”.

“We are going to need an RTE at the end of all of this, we are going to need public broadcasting at the end of all of this,” he added.

On Sunday, media minister Ms Martin insisted there were no proposals for staff redundancies or selling assets at RTE.

The statement from her spokesperson came following weekend media reports suggesting the Government was considering several significant cost-cutting steps at the organisation.

On Monday, further newspaper reports suggested RTE was considering selling its studios in Cork.

In response, the broadcaster insisted it was “fully committed” to its operations in Cork but acknowledged the “suitability of the current building for the full range of RTE’s operations in Cork is being assessed”.

Ms Martin is also due to meet with chairwoman of the RTE board Siun Ni Raghallaigh and incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst in the coming days to discuss the external review.

Mr Bakhurst is planning to “reconstitute” the executive board once he takes up his post.

His predecessor as director general, Dee Forbes, quit last week amid the fallout from the scandal.

She had already been due to stand down in July, with Mr Bakhurst taking over.

The parliamentary media committee in Dublin has also invited former chairwoman of the RTE board Moya Doherty, ex-director general Noel Curran, and former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe to answer TDs’ and senators’ questions on Wednesday.