Irish Examiner view: Let’s reconsider RTÉ’s purpose

In terms of international television and radio stations RTÉ is a cottage industry with limited, dwindling resources and that trend will not change

Earlier this year RTÉ warned Government that it was facing a deficit of €36m

For decades, RTÉ fuelled public debate, not all of it high-minded. Miley's farmboy clumsiness often got as much passionate attention as a Primetime expose. 

The station was embedded in our national persona in the way very few other semi-state institutions are or were. It was the conduit through which much of our world was seen. For a while, RTÉ's stars were close enough to the top of Ireland's Celebrity Tree but all that has changed forever. There will never be another Gaybo because media diversity scatters the limelight far more thinly than before. Despite that, a solvent, independent public sector broadcaster was never more important.