Unions back RTÉ bid for licence hike

LATE Late Show crews often have to borrow or hire microphones for the show because cash-strapped RTÉ can’t afford vital equipment.

Sound producers must beg, borrow or steal microphones for a number of top programmes, union representatives said yesterday.

RTÉ union member and TV production member Herbert Corkey cited an example where the sound crew on the Late Late Show did not have enough microphones when a large act was performing on Pat Kenny’s flagship Friday night talk show.

Not having adequate equipment was an indictment of the national broadcaster, Mr Corkey said.

At the Dáil Communications Committee, unions at the State broadcaster yesterday backed RTÉ management’s demand for a licence fee increase from €107 to €150.

In recent years, 480 jobs have been lost at RTÉ with redundancies due next year.

Since 1999, 330 staff have left organisation under the Transformation Agreement, with a further 150 jobs lost in November 2001 and a further 190 job cuts proposed for 2003, RTÉ trade union group secretary Dónall Ó Braonáin said.

“In effect 670 jobs will have been lost in RTÉ by June 2003. I fully believe that 43 is the minimum required,” Mr Ó Braonáin said.

The Government will make a decision on the application for a 43 fee increase next week. The cabinet handed responsibility for the issue over to a sub-committee comprising of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Tánaiste Mary Harney, Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy and Communications Minister Dermot Ahern.

RTÉ director general Bob Collins said the station received one of the lowest public subsidies in Europe.

The licence fees only accounted for 37% of RTÉ funding compared to an EU average of 71% funding for public service broadcasters.

And consumers spend more on cable television and four times as much on newspapers than on the TV licence fee, Mr Collins said. RTÉ needed increased revenue from the license fee increase to ensure a continued improvement in the service it provided, he said.

Following the meeting, Communications Committee chairman Noel O’Flynn announced the committee members backed RTÉ’s campaign for a licence fee increase.

The committee said it agreed with the principle of a licence fee increase as a first step to the continued existence of Public Service Broadcasting.

It also recognised the need for independent monitoring, accountability and transparency.