Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In all the heat of the debate this week, we have to recall that Ireland has lots to be proud of when it comes to public service broadcasting and that has to be said. However, there are many areas where we can do better. We boast generations of talented writers and artists, many of whom have had to leave these shores to have their work seen and heard. The work of many who are here and are contributing so much to news coverage and the creation of content here at home is desperately undervalued by our national broadcaster. Far too many of those who keep the lights on and the cameras rolling at RTÉ are denied a fair wage, a pension, holidays and maternity leave because they are trapped on bogus self-employment contracts. That is the reality. These workers' rights issues are not receiving enough scrutiny. Instead, our time is preoccupied by what our colleague, Senator Marie Sherlock, has rightly described as the upstairs-downstairs culture that prevails at RTÉ and the indefensible conduct of a few at the top. Yesterday’s committee appearances confirmed that. People were rightly shocked at the revelation that the former director general of RTÉ signed off on a €450,000 retirement payment for the former chief financial officer, Breda O’Keeffe. People are also shocked when they compare this extraordinary outlay with RTÉ's decision to spend tens of thousands of euro appealing findings made by the Department of Social Protection on bogus self-employment practices at the station. Those who are most demoralised by the revelations of the past year, the revelations of secret golden handshakes, are the staff on the ground who are paying for the very flaithiúlach approach being taken by those at the top to the resources of a struggling public body.

We all want to move on and focus on issues such as the workers' rights I have mentioned and, crucially, the key issue of the future funding model for the broadcaster, which the Government has not yet answered. The Government and RTÉ also have questions to answer about the past conduct of those at the top. The Tánaiste said just now that there must be transparency and accountability and he said earlier today that the exit package given to Breda O’Keeffe should be reassessed. Indeed, he suggested she might consider paying back excessive amounts. However, this is not just about one individual’s retirement deal. I think the Tánaiste agrees with that. We know there are others. RTÉ's former director of strategy, Rory Coveney, also received an exit package when he resigned in July but we do not know the value of that payment or what it was for. When asked, a spokesperson said that RTÉ could not provide more information.

We know that everybody wants to turn over a new leaf and focus on real issues but that cannot happen while public money is apparently still being spent sustaining the bad culture of old and fighting those who are bearing the brunt of this crisis at the Workplace Relations Commission or the High Court. Can the Tánaiste say how the Government is going to go about achieving that accountability and transparency he has said is so badly needed? While we in the Labour Party absolutely support decent investment in public service broadcasting, and pay our TV licences, we still need to know how much of the public money going into the national broadcaster has been spent covering the costs of yet another lucrative exit package and how much has been spent fighting the rights of workers who are struggling at the bottom of the system in RTÉ.

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