Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 12 June 2024
Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media
Engagement with Chairperson to the Board of RTÉ
Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I mean it because Mr. O'Rourke is right in what he says. The coverage of the past few days has been fantastic. RTÉ covered the European count. The European Championship is starting next week and RTÉ will cover that. People pay large subscriptions for Sky to watch sports and then have to pay a subscription for everything else. We get good value from RTÉ and expect everything to be run very well.
As I said, there are some great people in the organisation and they need to be supported and know they are respected. They do a good job, but what went on in RTÉ was a disgrace. Many more people should have been held accountable. Mr. O'Rourke is new and has a very difficult job to do. He is the watchdog for the general public and we are depending on him to make sure the general public never sees what happened in RTÉ happen again. In spite of what people say, I encourage people to pay their TV licence because, to be fair, they get good value for the money they pay for it. I am not saying there should be an increase, but people should pay it now.