RTÉ has no interest in public interest

WE have a new government and there is a sense of hope in the country again.

This hope is not to be presumed on and we must see the necessary and drastic corrections which the times call for.

The IMF, ECB and EU but most importantly the plain citizenry want follow-through on pre-election rhetoric and a sea-change in Irish public life.

It is painfully clear that some of our extra-parliamentary institutions show little appetite for change. The government of opinion and politically correct thinking, RTÉ, and corporate vested interests, such as the trade unions, are still beating the same drums.

Two things highlighted this in the past week or so. Firstly we had RTÉ humping up the story of the camcorder-in-the-garda-car incident.

If private conversations, however reprehensible, have become serious misdemeanours worthy of all sorts of possible censure and punishment, not to mention the time and money spent on the pre-requisite enquiry, then we are in George Orwell country.

That a so–called public service broadcaster like RTÉ should inflate this story on the very day that we heard about senior public servants’ grace days, Empire days, Aintree racing days and whatever else brings their annual leave beyond 40 free days per year, shows just how distanced from public interest our well-funded broadcaster is.

It is surely time to look at what constitutes public service broadcasting, and whether or not the whole concept is not a bit antiquated in a multi-channel age.

Why should we be levied with a hefty licence fee to watch and listen to, or not as the case may be, over paid presenters as they waffle and patronise us while shamelessly using our money to artificially boost ratings with giveaways and competitions. The service needs to be whittled down to one, advertising-free station which focuses on matters of genuine public interest and cultural value including Irish language programmes.

If they want to continue paying their stars multiples of what the President of the US earns, not to mention our own Taoiseach, then let them do so on the back of their earnings, not on the back of a household levy which is what the TV licence really is.

The country is full of hard-pressed households who could spend €160 far more beneficially than on a licence for a service they do not want.

Margaret Hickey

Blarney

Co Cork