Varadkar encourages public to pay TV licence fee as RTE funding is hit

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has appealed to members of the public to pay their TV licence as reports suggest the national broadcaster has lost millions in funding through the fee since a scandal over undisclosed payments to star presenter Ryan Tubridy.

There is a legal obligation for TV owners to pay the 160-euro licence, with 85% of revenue from the scheme going to RTE to carry out its public service broadcasting commitments.

Reports suggest there was a 900,000 euro drop in revenue in the first week of August compared with 2022.

Speaking to reporters at Glencorrib Community Centre in south Mayo, Mr Varadkar said: “I would certainly encourage people to continue to pay their licence fee.

“Notwithstanding the recent controversy, the licence fee pays for our news, pays for arts broadcasting, sports, children’s, Irish-language broadcasting – things that are of real value and I would encourage people to continue to pay their licence fee.

Asked if RTE had made an additional request for funding in light of the drop in TV-licence payments, Mr Varadkar said the national broadcaster has had a long-standing request for additional funding before the controversy but has not yet sought additional monies on top of that.

He said any additional funding for RTE would have to be worked out later in the year and be subject to conditions.

“Ultimately, if we’re put in the position where we have to provide more funding to RTE from taxpayers, I think taxpayers would expect conditionality to be attached to that.

“And, you know, we’ve had periods before where Government had to provide additional finance to the banks, had to provide additional finance to sporting bodies that got into financial trouble, had to provide additional finance time to An Post, for example.

“And on all occasions, there were terms and conditions and expectations attached to that.”

Responding on the news that RTE’s new director-general Kevin Bakhurst has appointed an external corporate governance expert for advice, Mr Varadkar said the new boss of the national broadcaster is “off to a good start”.

“He does understand the situation and I think he’s doing his best to put it right.

“And I think it’s also important to restate that whatever mistakes, irregularities occurred in RTE, the vast majority of the staff had nothing to do with it and would have been unaware of it, and I think we need to always bear that in mind.”

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Elsewhere, People Before Profit called for investment in “a comprehensive national public media service”, incorporating RTE and other public service media.

The party said there needs to be “serious funding made available to RTE” and the wider public-service broadcasting system.

This would amount to one billion euro and be shared out by allocating 500 million euro to RTE and 500 million to other public service media companies per year.

The party said this would be provided on the basis of significant cultural and democratic reforms in RTE and at board level.

It said it wants to abolish the TV licence fee and remove all commercial and advertising activity from the national broadcaster.

Reacting to the plan, the Taoiseach said: “I’m not sure the public would support that quite frankly.”

He added: “If we had an extra billion euros of taxpayers’ money, giving all of it to the media wouldn’t be my highest priority to be very honest.”