It’s been a turbulent few days for the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan. It was bad enough that his heavily flagged proposal to introduce a €100 culture card for young people was conspicuous by its absence from last Tuesday’s budget.
Worse was to follow when it emerged, to widespread surprise, that RTÉ would not be receiving the €20 million increase in funding agreed as part of a multiannual restructuring deal in 2024. The surprise seemed to be shared by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, whose intervention reportedly led to an emergency meeting between the Minister and RTÉ’s chair and director general on Thursday.
While all concerned were tight-lipped afterwards, it has been clearly signalled that the Government will stump up the €20 million, subject to RTÉ satisfying the Minister on the progress of its reform and redundancy programme. Given that these were always the terms on which the multiannual payments were based, there is as yet no clear explanation as to why the money was withheld in the first place.
None of this is good for O’Donovan’s political reputation, and there were mutterings from various unnamed Government figures over the weekend that he might not keep his Cabinet seat when the midterm reshuffle takes place at the end of next year.
The Limerick TD seems to have an unfortunate knack for losing friends and alienating people, but last week’s embarrassments and the subsequent clean-up may have forced the question of how RTÉ is funded back on to the agenda, and that would not be a bad thing.
The current arrangement was agreed by the previous government in the summer of 2024. It guaranteed RTÉ €725 million in public money over three years, rising from €225 million in 2025 to €240 million this year and €260 million in 2027. The licence fee was retained, and the Exchequer committed to making up the difference between what it brought in and the agreed total. The lower amount raised from licence revenue, the bigger the cheque from the State.
That difference is growing quickly. Licence sales have fallen every year since the 2023 payments scandal. Figures released by O’Donovan last week show sales down 6 per cent in the first nine months of this year, putting full-year income on course for about €114 million, compared with more than €150 million in 2022.
Less widely understood is how much of the licence fee the State already pays. The Department of Social Protection funds free licences for everyone over 70 and others who qualify for the household benefits package, a bill in excess of €80 million a year. That is more than 500,000 licences, set against roughly 715,000 bought by households this year.
Free licences grow by up to 20,000 a year as the population ages, while paid ones keep falling. Remarkably, if current trends hold, licences paid for by social protection will outnumber those paid for by households as early as 2029. This seems untenable.
[ Does Patrick O’Donovan’s explanation for €20m RTÉ funding cut add up?Opens in new window ]
Add the direct top-up and the picture is starker still. In 2025, about 54 per cent of RTÉ’s public funding came from the Exchequer in one form or another. By 2027, that share is likely to be above 60 per cent. The licence fee survives in name, but the money increasingly comes directly from Government.
European law now has something to say about this. The European Media Freedom Act requires member states to fund public broadcasters through transparent procedures based on objective criteria set in advance, and to ensure they have “adequate, sustainable and predictable” resources. The point is to protect editorial independence by making sure money cannot be used as a political lever. The Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill now before the Oireachtas is meant to give effect to those rules here.
Last week’s episode looks much more like political incompetence than a deliberate act of interference. But cutting an agreed sum at a few hours’ notice, without explanation, is clearly not in keeping with the spirit of the EU rules. Whatever its cause, it has shown how easily the money can be turned on and off.
Nor should the role of ill-will be underestimated. Members of the Oireachtas media committee have indicated they intend to question RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst about a newspaper column by radio presenter Oliver Callan, which questioned Simon Harris’s credentials as Minister for Finance. One source described Callan’s piece as “antigovernment”. Whether a presenter’s newspaper column should be a matter for a committee examining RTÉ’s finances is debatable. That the two are being raised alongside each other is telling.
The new legislation will strengthen the role of Coimisiún na Meán, which will assess RTÉ’s needs and recommend a level of funding for each three-year period. But the regulator’s role will be advisory. There will be no legal obligation on the minister of the day to follow its recommendations, nor, as far as can be seen, any requirement to explain a decision not to. The final call will remain where it was last week, with a politician putting together a budget.
The licence fee has many faults, including the fact that it is now collapsing before our eyes. But it was based on a sound principle. Money paid directly by citizens to a public service broadcaster, at arm’s length from the government of the day, gave that broadcaster a degree of independence that an annual grant cannot.
If public service broadcasting is to retain public trust and integrity, it must be insulated from political pressure, whether born of malice or just haplessness. If nothing else, we can thank O’Donovan for reminding us of that.
[ RTÉ funding snub not a good look for Patrick O’DonovanOpens in new window ]
