Licence fee boost for Irish productions

MORE episodes of Fair City, new home-produced dramas and increased regional news coverage are on the way following RTÉ’s licence fee increase.

The Government yesterday announced a €43 fee increase which will ease the station’s finance crisis and provide funding for private broadcasters for the first time.

RTÉ has, in exchange, promised to provide greater details of how its spends its funds, but the salaries of its top personalities will still remain secret. The licence fee will also be increased annually to keep it roughly in line with inflation, while RTÉ will face a major review every five years to ensure it is meeting finance and programming targets.

This means that for the first time there will much less political control over how much the State broadcaster receives very year, which has long been an issue of contention.

The increase brings the total cost of the licence to €150 from January 1, 2003, the equivalent of €12 a month, compared with €175 in Britain.

Licence-fee holders will be able to pay the fee in monthly installments by direct debit through their bank account from next year. Around €7 of the licence fee will go towards a special €8m fund which will be available to all broadcasters for new and innovative programming proposals.

Despite having to share some of the €43 increase, RTÉ’s director general Bob Collins said it was a “very positive outcome”.

However, he said that plans to reduce the numbers employed in the organisation will still go ahead and that up to €150 posts will go shortly.

Communications Minister Dermot Ahern said RTÉ would have to increase its output of public service broadcasting, such as home-produced drama, Irish-language programmes and more current affairs, in exchange for the fee increase: “If we want responsible public service broadcasting we will have to pay it. I believe the decision today strikes a balance between establishing public service broadcasting on a firmer footing and introducing content which will ensure the taxpayer receives value for investment.”

A new content regulator will be established, called the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which will regulate all independent and public broadcasting. The station will also improve its financial controls and break the organisation into six business units to show where the licence fee money goes.

The chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Deputy Noel O’Flynn, said RTÉ would now have to lift its veil of secrecy on how cash was spent to ensure there was full transparency.

Opposition parties yesterday broadly welcomed the fee increase but said a number of issues needed to be clarified such as how the special broadcasting fund will operate.

A Fine Gael spokesman said the fee should have been split in two to ensure the station delivered on its promises to make all necessary changes.