Dáil debates

Thursday, 14 November 2019

Financial Challenges Facing RTÉ and its Revised Strategy 2020-2024: Statements (Resumed)

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. First, as everybody is aware, RTÉ gives a good service throughout the country. I am not fluent but I know a good amount of Irish.

I watch TG4 a lot because its coverage, especially on Sundays, of the GAA, rugby and the different fabrics of Irish life is extremely good. Often I would flick over from RTÉ 1 and stay watching TG4 a lot longer. That is a tribute to the channel which is run on a small budget.

Other television stations do not receive a subsidy and must cut their cloth to measure. They cannot be over-inflated or have a situation where too many cooks spoil the broth. They must make sure they are run efficiently. I smiled when Members referred to wages and salaries. There should be a cap on but not long ago, the House debated bringing people on a lower salary up to the top salary of someone else and now we are looking at the reverse. While there should be a cap, because some of the salaries are astronomical, but in journalism everything is gauged on viewership so it is a question of whether someone has 100,000 viewers or 50,000 or 500,000. It is similar to Ronaldo and someone playing in the second division. Who will get the higher wage? If broadcasters have 500,000 people watching them or 100,000, that is how their salary is gauged in the world of journalism. It might be cruel but that is the reality.

We must also look inward. How many days have one of us received a call asking if we will come out to RTÉ and the last question we are asked before they hang up is: "Do you need a taxi?" I smiled on Monday after they spent six hours telling people in rural Ireland how they were destroying the planet. One would swear we were going to save the world from all the research RTÉ had done, especially farmers and people living in rural Ireland, yet any time one visits Montrose it is like a taxi rank with the number of taxis that carry politicians and ordinary people there. If one visits from further they will ask if one is okay for a hotel. These are expenses where RTÉ can start cutting its cloth to measure. We are in a city, which has the best public transport in the country, certainly compared to where I am from or Cork, Limerick or Galway where Deputy Connolly is from. I do not know much about Lyric FM because I am certainly not into that but then RTÉ decides to close its studio in Limerick to try to whip things back to Dublin again and leave people who have set their lives up in a different part of the country in the lurch.

There is no doubt that RTÉ incurs more expenditure. RTÉ has reporters in every part of the country and that costs more. There is a good service where one can go to local studios for instance, in Athlone. Should the orchestra be moved under the remit of the Department Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht? Can RTÉ afford that? Where has the money gone from the site that it sold? Has it more land that could be sold? Did managers consider moving to a different location because land close to the city is expensive?

We must ensure that RTÉ remains a functioning station but we cannot keep throwing money at it and have them keep shouting back for more. It must be ensured there is accountability. I believe what RTÉ is doing is good. When I heard the announcement I was surprised that it was selling something that was making money, for whatever reason. The one thing I do not want to see them do is what they did with Lyric FM and cut the regional services to maintain the service in Donnybrook.

Recently I have noticed something about RTÉ that relates to someone giving an opinion that goes against what most or the majority think. I was watching a show about climate change recently. One either had to agree with everything the participants were saying or one was not allowed to take part. Correspondents were coming out with lists such as "Nine things that everyone should do". They need to be unbiased. I spoke to many people who turned off the television because of some of the stuff they saw.

Whether it is salaries or spending on taxis or hotels, it must all be looked at holistically. There are issues that can be sorted. We must ensure that RTÉ is preserved but there are stations that live on crumbs, such as TG4, which provide an invaluable service.

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