Government to review RTÉ reforms before releasing withheld €20m funding

The new media minister says progress on the broadcaster’s reform programme must be assessed before funding discussions can advance

Peter Burke to bring RTÉ reform plans to Cabinet as €20m funding gap remains. Picture: Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire

Minister Peter Burke will bring a memo to Cabinet “within the next couple of weeks” on reforms at RTÉ and hopes to resolve a multi-million-euro funding gap before the end of the year.

The lack of progress on a redundancy scheme and other reforms at the national broadcaster was cited as a reason for withholding €20m in promised funding as part of last month’s Budget.

Patrick O’Donovan, who has temporarily stepped aside as media minister while recovering from ill health, shocked senior management at RTÉ when he withdrew the funding without prior notice.

Mr Burke, who has now taken over Mr O’Donovan’s responsibilities, is adamant that the funding issue will be resolved “quickly”.

“The first critical thing we need to do is to come forward and update the Cabinet with the programme of reform that RTÉ has embarked upon, how it is progressing. Ultimately, there were many targets brought forward by the national broadcaster, and we need to ensure that those targets are met, that we are getting those efficiencies, that we are ensuring that money is spent appropriately, and that will be my first job to ensure that we can brief our Cabinet colleagues in that regard and engage with government leaders.” 

He added: “Once I'm satisfied in that regard, I will engage with RTÉ, the RTÉ director general, and obviously the chairperson of the board and government leaders with regard funding. But we have to be satisfied first of all that the programme of reform is going apace, and that everything that was committed to is being carried out in full.”

Funding dependent on progress with reforms

Expressing confidence in RTÉ management and its board, Mr Burke said “calm heads” were now needed to “deescalate” tensions between the Government and Montrose in order to “work through the reforms” that had been promised and agreed upon.

Speaking after an EU presidency meeting in Mullingar, Mr Burke said this element would be “very important in terms of funding”.

“Obviously, we'll work with Minister [Jack] Chambers and the Government leaders then in progressing funding. But we obviously need to ensure that essentially reforms are taking place. That would be very important from my perspective, and hopefully that we can get that resolved this year,” Mr Burke said.