Mr. Terence O'Rourke:

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach, na Teachtaí Dala agus na Seanadóirí as an gcuireadh freastal ar an gcruinniú seo chun m’ainmniúchán a phlé mar chathaoirleach ainmnithe RTÉ ag an Aire Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus na Meán, an Teachta Catherine Martin. Mar an gcéanna leis an Teachta Cannon, bhí Gaelige álainn liofa agam nuair a bhí mé i bhfad nios óige ach tá sé beagnach go léir caillte agam anois. Leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh i mBéarla. As the Chair said, I am accompanied by Ms Aideen Howard, non-executive director and chair of the RTÉ board’s programme committee; Mr. Robert Shortt, RTÉ company secretary; and Ms Eimear Cusack, RTÉ’s director of human resources.

I was honoured to be appointed as chair of the RTÉ board. I take the responsibility very seriously and I am committed to working with the rest of the board, the leadership team and staff in RTÉ, the Government and this committee, as well all our stakeholders, to create a new direction for RTÉ. My background is in finance. I worked with KPMG for 38 years and served as its managing partner and was a member of its global executive team and global board before I retired from the company in 2013. I am a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and served as president of that organisation in the year 2004-05. I have a lot of experience serving on and leading boards for a wide range of organisations. I was previously chair of Enterprise Ireland and the IMI, and have served on the governing authority of DCU, the boards of The Irish Times, and Children’s Health Foundation, among others. I am also currently the chair of ESB.

I will address my role with RTÉ today, under the following three main headings: first, how RTÉ plans to develop and change to meet the many challenges, as well as opportunities, that it is faced with in a disruptive decade ahead; second, the urgent need for a sustainable and adequate financing framework; and, third, the many ongoing governance reforms and HR issues that are being addressed.

Before addressing those three issues, I will briefly comment on two points. First, I need again to acknowledge on behalf of the RTÉ board, our profound disappointment and regret about the actions, events and behaviours that triggered the several reports that investigated those issues. The organisation has learned from what happened and the necessary controls and procedures are being put in place to make sure that those kinds of events cannot happen again. Second, I acknowledge the great work of the staff of RTÉ in providing output of the highest quality across our television, radio and digital platforms before, during and since the difficult events of last year. RTÉ continues to successfully engage with an audience that can still be measured in reaching almost 90% of the Irish adult population on a weekly basis. The professionalism and commitment of the staff is at all times evident, despite the serious blow to morale and, on behalf of the board, I want to thank them for that.

As set out in the well-researched and deliberated Report of the Future of the Media Commission, how RTÉ delivers on its wide-ranging remit in the coming decade is challenged by a changing world in which technological advances, changing consumer behaviour and social needs challenge all media to develop new business models and new ways to engage with audiences or risk losing them. The spread of misinformation and disinformation risks undermining public confidence in news and information. The media system faces long-term economic challenges, including a decisive shift in advertising revenues away from media towards the technology firms that dominate the digital advertising market. This is compounded in the case of RTÉ by the increasing unsustainability of TV Licence fees as a source of public funding.

In the face of these significant challenges, and to take advantage of the opportunities that also present themselves in this quickly changing environment, it is vital that RTÉ takes steps to reposition itself. What RTÉ must do is, first, to invest significantly in new technology to enable it to be able to continue delivering on its public service media mandate in an increasingly digital first world. Second, we must change the way we make programmes by significantly increasing the proportion of productions made outside RTÉ by a growing, innovative and ever more creative independent production sector. That move was in line with the recommendations of the Future of Media Commission. Third, we must also look hard at what production and transmission facilities we will need to retain and upgrade to operate sustainably in the years head and, fourth, ensure we have the right skills to deliver for our changing audience. Fifth, RTÉ must focus even more on how we can best service the diverse needs of the people of Ireland, which will involve investing in facilities and production locations outside of Dublin. These issues will be the key components of our strategy for the next five years, which we are currently in the process of finalising. That strategy will fundamentally and importantly need a stable basis of financing.

The board of RTÉ welcomes the repeated assurances of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and her Government colleagues that they expect to finalise a new financing framework for RTÉ over the next few weeks before the summer recess. We recognise that there are a range of choices open to the Government to decide on as to how that financing can be provided and that is a matter for the Government to decide on but from the board’s perspective, it is important that whatever form of financing is decided upon, it should be sufficient, predictable and independent.

I will finish with the issue of better Governance and HR policies. We welcomed the detailed expert advisory group reports in early May. The Minister asked that we provide detailed implementation plans within six weeks and we are on course to share those plans with her very soon.

Some of the recommendations are for the Government, with many more for RTÉ. I understand that it is the Minister's intention to bring the detailed implementation plans, containing both RTÉ's and the Government's plans, to Cabinet for approval later this month. We will be happy to discuss the final implementation plans with the committee also once they are published.

RTÉ's corporate governance, transparency and operations must be of a standard commensurate with its mandate of providing a vital public service. The board is focused on ensuring that RTÉ has corporate governance and transparency that should define it. This is important for our external stakeholders, and for RTÉ staff who provide such a critical public service. They deserve a healthy working environment in return.

I look forward to working with Government, staff in RTÉ and all our stakeholders, including this committee, in delivering the process of transformation that commenced last year. Committee members have played an important role to date, and we look forward to their continued engagement as we forge a new direction for RTÉ.