The TV licence fee is to be retained and supplemented by a multi-annual stream of exchequer funding in a deal close to being agreed by the Government on the future funding of RTÉ.
Under the deal, RTÉ will be funded by a combination of the licence fee and will also be the only State body to be funded on a multi-annual basis, sources said, meaning it will not be subject to annual rounds of budgetary allocations.
Minister for Arts and Media Catherine Martin was known to favour a fully State-funded model but that encountered significant resistance. There was also pushback around the suggestion of multi-annual funding, but that element has now been agreed
It is understood that the finishing touches to an agreement between Ministers were in the process of being nailed down on Thursday in talks between the Department of Public Expenditure and the Department of Arts and Media. A decision is expected to go to Cabinet next week and a paper is to be prepared for the three Coalition leaders.
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Speaking in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, where he is attending a meeting of the European Political Community, Taoiseach Simon Harris said he was hopeful of a resolution to the issue of RTÉ funding soon and signalled he was open to a hybrid model.
“This saga has gone on for far too long,” he said. “It’s now important that we bring finality to the question of how we fund public service broadcasting.”
He said engagement on the issue is ongoing and he expects the Coalition leaders to be in a position to bring a proposal to Cabinet next week.
He said there were two options. “You go with some sort of reformed licence model or you go with direct exchequer funding. But actually that’s a strawman way of doing it. Perhaps there is a way in the middle,” he said. “I don’t want to see the taxpayer have to put their hand in their pocket and pay more.”
The issue of the future funding of the national broadcaster has divided the Government for months and was further complicated by the firestorm of controversy that arose last summer following the emergence of undisclosed payments to the station’s former star presenter Ryan Tubridy.
The Future of Media Commission had recommended that RTÉ be funded fully by the exchequer, but this was the only of its recommendation that the Government did not enact.
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