RTÉ’s cash crisis - It is time for hard choices at Montrose

UNDER-ESTIMATING the difficulty of a situation seems to be our new national sport; denial has become the new black.

That indulgence may be desirable on a sunny bank holiday Monday morning but, as we all know by now, reality will intrude sooner or later.

This weekend’s revelation that RTÉ has increased its projected losses by nearly 50% – from e68 million to e100m – is an underestimation on the scale of a Department of Finance blunder. RTÉ has warned that without radical changes they may not be able to pay staff in as little as five months. Director-general Cathal Goan said that up to 300 jobs are in jeopardy.

In this instance, as in so many more, radical changes means wage cuts, redundancies and the axing of a range of perks. For instance, the six members of RTÉ’s executive board get e12,000 a year for driving their cars to work. The “car allowance” is given to managers who simply park in the station car park at Donnybrook. Nice work if you can get it.

In 2007 Cathal Goan earned e441,000, his basic salary was e283,000, his performance-related bonus was e108,000, his pension supplement was e23,000 and his other benefits amounted to e27,000. His salary was up from e360,000 on the previous year.

Again, nice work if you can get it.

Just 10 years ago his predecessor Bob Collins earned about e120,000. Even in Celtic Tiger Ireland a four-fold increase in less than a decade seems excessive

Mr Goan’s package, however, pales into insignificance when compared with the rewards – the golden handcuffs – granted to the station’s talent.

Last year Pat Kenny got the bones of e900,000, Gerry Ryan fell just short of e600,000. Both will insist these figures reflect the advertising revenue generated by the programmes they front.

And here is the nub of the RTÉ wages dilemma. Kenny, Ryan and others in that bracket act as if they live in a commercial world while at the same time enjoying the mattress of the licence fee – up from e107 to e150 in recent years with an inflation index attached. This seems increasingly difficult to defend.

Though there will considerable focus on pay – staff are voting on pay cuts of up to 12.5% – there are far bigger issues at play.

Like virtually every other media organisation RTÉ is feeling the brunt of the recession and will have to change to survive. Like very many other organisations it spent too well during the good times and needs to retrench. So, get on with it. What is absolutely certain is that Ireland needs a strong, vibrant and independent RTÉ because it is our regulator of last resort. The horrific truths of institutional child abuse revealed in the Ryan report would never have been uncovered had it not been for RTÉ’s States of Fear. Those programmes meant the evil simply had to be confronted and that the collusion and silence on abuse had to come to an end.

In a society where secrecy is the default position we need a national broadcaster with the skills and the resources to shine a light into the dark corners of our society and thereby earn the privileges that come with being a state-supported public service station.

If that means less focus on commercial targets – and the attendant stellar wages – and a realignment towards the public broadcaster remit then so be it.