Taoiseach Leo Varadkar plans to continue to pay his TV licence and hopes that others follow suit, but said it is an outdated model that requires an overhaul.
Speaking in Co Clare on Saturday, Mr Varadkar insisted that reform of the TV licence “is long overdue”.
“I want that to happen during this Government,” he said. “I can see the political temptation to put it off for another Government or another Dáil, but I do not want to do that, and I want to get it done. I want to make sure we have a new system up and running during the lifetime of this Government.”
He emphasised that RTÉ provides much in the way of valuable broadcasting to the people of Ireland.
“Whether it is the news, sport, Irish language programming, drama, children’s TV, the RTÉ archives. That is the value. But it does need to be overhauled,” he told RTÉ Mid West Correspondent Cathy Halloran
“[The TV licence] is a really old-fashioned way of collecting revenue based on ownership of a TV, a device that many people just don’t have any more. And of course almost all the money goes to RTÉ, though there are many other bodies involved in public service broadcasting.”
Mr Varadkar said that he understands that the new RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst is set to announce changes to the organisation on Monday.
“The way the management is structured and issues around conflicts of interest. I am very reassured in what he has said to Government and it’s important that he be allowed to set out those plans on Monday and to talk to staff first because I think that is very important. And then to inform the wider nation about those changes. And he’s going to make them quickly.”
Meanwhile, former Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte told Saturday with Áine Kerr, on RTÉ Radio 1, that politicians need to be careful about going down the route of a “public flogging” when it comes to the scandal that has hit RTÉ.
“The committees have done some very good work in extracting information that the public need to know and many of its members have acquitted themselves well.
“Others, a small minority, the less said about their grandstanding the better. But politicians need to be careful about overstepping the mark here.
There is a thin line between accountability and public flogging and yes the so-called executive board [at RTÉ] must be made accountable but a public flogging is alien to our culture. Politicians need to be careful that we don’t rue the day when they sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the humiliation of RTÉ. Which is richly merited. But we just have to get up and get on with the job.”
Deputy Mairead Farrell, who represents Sinn Féin in Galway West and South Mayo, was also interviewed on Saturday with Áine Kerr. She said that she understood public anger about slush funds and barter accounts.
“Of course people are really angry. And I understand why they are angry. There cannot be a situation where public money and licence fee money is spent on kind of lavish lifestyles for certain individuals when we have heard of a situation where [other] workers have been so poorly treated.”
Peadar Tóibín of Aontú told the show that the party would scrap the licence fee and fund RTÉ through taxation.
“Tax is progressive so those who earn more pay more so it is fairer. It is incredibly important that we have some accountability [in relation to what occurred at RTÉ]. There was an absolute breakdown in governance.”
