Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The need for radical reform in RTÉ is obvious from the €450,000 paid to the former financial officer. It is shocking on top of all the revelations about obscene salaries. We need to get to the root of why this stuff happened. Part of the reason was that RTÉ moved away from a public service remit and became too embroiled in advertising and commercial considerations. Then all the executives thought they had to be paid the same as those who work in the corporate sector, abandoning their public service remit. To resolve the matter, we need, as well as reform at the top, direct Exchequer funding that is not reliant on commercial sponsorship. How do we pay for that? We have been arguing for months that a tax should be put on the profits of social media companies. This could easily fund RTÉ through direct Exchequer funding. It would give us additional money for public service broadcasting. The ordinary workers, including crew and others, should not pay the price - nor should the public in terms of the quality of public service broadcasting - for the crimes of a few at the top of RTÉ.

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