Government only fully informed of RTÉ cuts after media leaks, Minister claims

The Minister for Communications was only informed of RTE's plans to make €60m in cuts after it was leaked to the media.

While the Government "would have had an idea of the approach that was coming forward" Tánaiste Simon Coveney told the Dáil that Richard Bruton only received the final restructuring report on Thursday morning.

The cutback plans, which will be enforced over three years, include 200 redundancies and pay freezes across the board, it is understood senior management and top earners will face a 10% pay cut.

Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary said there is a "lack of a coherent and cohesive government policy around defending media" and called for immediate action.

"Our entire media industry as a country including RTÉ is on life support of your prescription is tea and sympathy," he told the Dáil.

He accused the Government of "completely procrastinating" on changing the defamation laws and bringing in a broadcasting charge to replace the TV licence fee which Mr Calleary said has the highest evasion rate in Europe resulting in a loss of income of around €25m each year.

Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary

"RTÉ is under substantial financial pressure due to falling income from advertising due to changing viewership trends, online trends and global changes, but it has also had quite a substantial lack of engagement from government about its funding model about licence fee evasion and a constant effort on the part of government to kick the can on the road, not to deal with the challenges that it's facing."

Mr Coveney confirmed that Mr Bruton had received the final report on cutbacks from RTÉ this morning after it was leaked last night adding:

RTÉ were not expecting to have to deal with this issue today, it is my understanding.

He said around 1,800 staff who work in RTÉ should have been informed of the plan internally but instead had read it in the media, which he described as a "huge frustration".

Defending the Government, the Tánaiste said: "Additional funding has been provided to RTÉ with the allocation of €10m of additional funding between 2018 and 2019."

Mr Coveney said the TV licence fee collection will soon be put out to tender when the relevant legislation is enacted.

This new system will be in place for five years and after that the TV licence would be replaced by a different charge to take account of the changing way in which people are accessing media.

"it is not appropriate into the medium term to be continuing to pay for public service broadcasting by effectively putting a charge or a license fee on TV ownership when we know that at least 10% of homes, don't have televisions, but are watching content online, whether it's on on tablets or iPads," he said.

But Mr Calleary again accused the Government of kicking the can down the road when it comes to overhauling the TV licence.