Emma O'Kelly: RTÉ's Tubridy distraction is over, now government must grasp the nettle

23/06/2023 Dublin, Ireland. National Union of Journalists Dublin Broadcasting Branch Emma O'Kelly is pictured leaving RTE after a meeting with management. Photograph: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

In the newsroom and in the canteen and corridors of RTÉ yesterday, there was a sense that something had shifted. Whatever personal views people may have had about Ryan Tubridy as an individual and whether or not he should return to the airwaves, staff in RTÉ are hopeful now that the constant focus on one individual is at an end.

Speaking on RTÉ's Prime Time programme on Thursday evening Director General Kevin Bakhurst called this focus "a distraction" from his goal to rebuild public trust, and it had become a distraction too in terms of the message us staff needed to communicate to the public we serve.

For all of us, this crisis was never about one individual, it was about a culture; an outrageous system that has seen RTÉ lavish a tiny minority with excessive payments and opportunities, while so many others struggle on low pay, with insecure contracts and substandard working conditions or languish in jobs they have long outgrown because of a lack of promotional opportunities.

Emma O'Kelly addresses RTÉ staff at a lunchtime rally by staff in RTÉ and members of the NUJ, SIPTU, Connect and non trade union members. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

We welcome comments made by Kevin Bakhurst that it is time to draw a line between the past and the present, that the organisation is bigger than any individual, and that he intends to reduce excessive earnings, by opening new negotiations as those contracts come up for renewal.

Kevin Bakhurst said that before negotiations with Ryan Tubridy broke down, RTÉ had agreed a new salary of €170,000. Colleagues wondered on Friday if this figure represented a new benchmark and they welcomed that.

Now for the first time there is a sense that the era of fantasy earnings may be drawing to an end. We have long argued for this. 

In 2019 the NUJ Broadcasting Branch called for a cap on all earnings at the broadcaster. We saw no reason why anyone working in public service media should earn more than the top of the civil servant scale which at the time was just over €200,000.

For too long RTÉ has pursued a commercially driven strategy, based on ‘star culture’. Years of under-funding by successive governments have driven it down this path, and while ordinary staff have suffered, as resources are cut and cut again across the organisation the biggest losers are the Irish public.

RTÉ staff want a fresh start, real change, and now – out of all this mess - we see a basis for hope.

We want to work to regain the trust of the Irish public and to get on with making quality programming and content.

But all this can only be done on a stable financial footing.

23/06/2023 Emma O'Kelly is pictured leaving RTÉ after a meeting with management. Photograph: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

Everyone agrees that the TV licence model of funding is no longer fit for purpose, but for years governments have refused to face up to this fact. For too long they managed to get public service broadcasting on the cheap but now the game is up. The dramatic fall off in licence fee payments means reform is urgent.

We want to once again feel proud of the organisation we work for. We are sick of watching talented younger colleagues leaving the organisation because they see no future for themselves here. 

We want women working in RTÉ to feel that they can have a baby or raise a family without derailing their careers.

We want a new RTÉ that leads the way in terms of openness and transparency around issues such as pay, pensions, bonuses and special allowances. We want full transparency too around issues related to gender, and equal opportunity.

We would like to see a public debate on what form a new, sustainable and equitable model of public funding for public service media should take. And we want the Government to secure the future of public service media here by grasping the nettle and moving to put such a model in place.

Emma O'Kelly is Chair of the Dublin NUJ Broadcasting Branch.