We will all end up paying the price for severely diminished Irish media
Contrast that with an episode of Aussie soap Neighbours which is broadcast for only a couple of thousand euro an hour — because another station had the expense of making it.
The business of television is not cheap. These figures were provided last month in an appearance by RTÉ management before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The politicians were interested in the costs. The most eyebrow-raising figure was the up to €1m per hour needed to produce homegrown Irish drama.
Remember the huge popularity of Love/Hate? That cost the big bucks, as did the 1916 Rising drama Rebellion.
Cost is why we see a dwindling number of these type of programmes on our screens and why we’re likely to see even less.
The fact is RTÉ is very close to not having an arse in its trousers. But like the boy that cried wolf, no one is paying much attention to its warnings about its own impecunity.
RTÉ is dual funded through a proportion of television licence fee receipts and the commercial revenue it generates — which has also been dropping.
The licence fee collection system, operated by An Post, has long been shown up as highly inefficient with an almost 15% evasion rate. Compare this to the UK where the rate is 5%.
The collective trauma felt by politicians after the water charges protests has meant that a much needed licence fee increase was unlikely.
We also have a Fine Gael dominated Government, and that party has shown little appetite to giving RTÉ a dig out — it seems to be a philosophical thing but also, one suspects, a way of politicians keeping the station under the thumb somewhat.
RTÉ’s director general Dee Forbes made a rather stark opening statement to the PAC. She has revealed similar facts previously to the Oireachtas Communications Committee.
Why, she asked the politicians, is it acceptable that the licence fee collection system is so inefficient that €60m goes uncollected each year?
That’s a whopping amount of money that, according to law, should be collected. It might have been understandable during the recession not to force the issue, but there is no excuse now.
The other point raised is that the current situation is hugely unfair to those of us who do pay.
“That is not acceptable in any other area of the public finances and it should not be acceptable when it comes to public service broadcasting,” Ms Forbes told TDs and senators.
"RTÉ is not asking for additional money from households; we are simply asking that the fee the State believes is appropriate for television licensing be collected.
The Oireachtas Communications Committee has already made a clear recommendation that responsibility for collecting the fee should be shifted to the Revenue Commissioners.
It’s not like An Post — which charges double that of many European licence fee collectors — has not had plenty of warning over the years about how extraordinarily inefficient it is at this job.
In what other environment would such a large amount of money foregone be acceptable, without those responsible upping their game?
RTÉ has produced a five-year strategy still being considered by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten has done a lot of breast beating, and acknowledges that public service broadcasting is in “deep trouble” but other than words he has done zip about it.
The committee was told by Ms Forbes that much is now at risk, that the Irish media sector is in “real trouble”.
“The only organisations that benefit from a severely diminished Irish media are international media groups, tech companies and international content providers, none of which invest in Irish journalism, culture or programming or in the Irish creative economy. In television in particular, without reforms, Ireland will quickly become just an extension of the UK and the US markets.”
Is this where we want to go?
Because we will find ourselves in this place fast enough. We need only look at the abortion referendum debate to see the value of RTÉ to us as a society.
The Claire Byrne Live debate had 650,000 viewers tuning in at some point during the programme, while for the Prime Time debate, it was 738,000 viewers.
That was no Brexit referendum. We spoke, we discussed, we thrashed out, we listened to experts and we came to the decision that we did on May 25.
Our national broadcaster facilitated much of that.
Remember the storms earlier this year — in this house we were glued to RTÉ to get the run down on what we might expect to happen, and how many sliced pans and litres of milk we might need to buy in.
There are times when any of us will shout at the radio and television when RTÉ channels are on and allege bias, but if we analyse it honesty, overall, we know that in the round there is usually balance.
We’ve only to look at the UK media at present, and that in the US, and the concerns about fake news, and how an agenda such as Brexit can be presented, to realise that we should be cherishing this and not running it into the ground.
How does all this sit with a pay bill of almost €3m for the 10 highest-paid RTÉ presenters?
These people are exceptionally well paid, of that there is no doubt, and there should be scrutiny of what we get in return. But there is also the question of what they might earn in the private sector.
Also if you crunch the numbers you’ll see that reducing or even slashing them won’t get you too many episodes of a home produced drama, or an expensive US one for that matter.
Ms Forbes also made the point that some people believe that RTÉ has plenty of money. Numerous independent reports and reviews have examined in detail what RTÉ is obliged to do.
That is not to say the station did not have a rather cushioned existence for a long time, with a bloated staff, and a runaway budget during the Celtic Tiger years, but that no longer exists.
Anyone passing the Montrose site will see that quite a chunk of it has been sold off (for €107.5m) and is under development.
Since 2008, RTÉ’s overall annual funding has fallen by more than €100m or 23%, while, at the same time the station has had to develop online and mobile services and to fund and deliver digital television.
This highlights the utter outdatedness of the licence fee for the TV box in the corner of the room, when so much content is now consumed on our phones and other devices.
What has been proposed is a new fee would go to a “public service pot” for the production of any domestic quality content — not just RTÉ and possibly including newspapers.
So it’s decision time when it comes to funding our national broadcaster. The station’s director general has taken the case to two Oireachtas committees and laid it out fairly starkly.
This does not appear to have worked.
It looks like it is time for her to step up the campaign and make the case even more explicitly and publicly to the Government.
