RTE urged to get its act together by Taoiseach

It is RTE’s responsibility to get its “act together”, the Taoiseach has said.

In its annual report published on Monday, RTE returned a net deficit 9.1 million euro in 2023, in what was described as “a challenging year” for the organisation.

Earlier this year, the Government agreed a new financing programme which will guarantee levels of funding for RTE through a system of direct Exchequer top-ups to licence fee sales.

In the annual report, RTE said a decline in TV licence revenues, along with an increase in operating costs and special broadcasts, contributed to the deficit.

The national broadcaster repeated a criticism of the TV licence mechanism, saying it reflected “less and less how people consume public service content”.

It pointed to the implementation of non-device dependent media charges in other countries.

Asked about the comments on Monday, Simon Harris told reporters at the National Ploughing Championships: “It is RTE’s role to run the public service broadcaster, to do it in a responsible way, to get their act together quite frankly.”

The new agreement means that – after expected income from licence fees is accounted for – the Government will directly provide the organisation with a projected 42 million euros next year.

The overall funding package, which is less than what the broadcaster asked for, followed Government consideration of RTE’s five-year reform strategy.

It follows a year of crisis management at the cash-strapped station over a series of governance and financial scandals which further fuelled a years-long trend in declining TV licence revenue.

An Post, which is in charge of collecting the unchanged 160-euro annual fee for households with TVs, will also receive an additional six million euro to improve its processes.

Mr Harris added: “In terms of the financial situation, we’ve greatly helped them. And when I say we, I mean the taxpayers of this country, we’ve helped because we value public service broadcasting.

“But the elected Government of Ireland will make decisions in terms of how we fund services, not RTE.

“Its perfectly entitled to put forward a view. We’ve decided – I fully support the position we’ve decided – it’s a licence fee [that is] better collected with no increased cost and better levels of Exchequer funding, and also a recognition that RTE does excellent public service broadcasting, but so too do others.

“And having a media fund now that I’d like to see grow in the Budget, and I’d like to see grow in the years ahead, that supports other media outlets, and also it supports local and regional media as well.”

Mr Harris said RTE “can comment on whatever they wish”, adding “but I’m most concerned about the annual report of the financial figures and making sure that they’re delivering on the reform agenda they’ve signed up to”.