Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Shanahan. The last two weeks have been catastrophic, not only for RTÉ but for its staff and the public seeing the demise of our independent public broadcaster. We heard of a scheme designed to cover up payments to the presenter Ryan Tubridy, that if revealed, would contradict the fact that he was supposed to have taken an 11% pay cut. Thereafter the existing chair of the board proclaimed that it was a scheme designed to deceive. Ryan Tubridy may well have been a symptom of the problem but he was by no means the cause of what seems to have spread like a cancer throughout the organisation. The revelations escalated to the barter account spending, facilitating junkets over the years for staff and clients to the tune of hundreds of thousands of euro, all while RTÉ's former director general, Dee Forbes, protested that the TV licence fee had to increase as RTÉ's survival depended on it. The board of RTÉ has scapegoated the obvious and has absolved itself of any real responsibility. The board's lack of knowledge and of interaction with the executive board would call into question the rationale for having a board in the first place, in circumstances where it appeared to have known nothing about it.

The damage caused is massive. Staff were lied to and are feeling let down and morale is on the floor. The public no longer has confidence and en massethey say they will not pay their TV licences. It is even in doubt if the commercial sponsors will stay or go. Clearly the national broadcaster is in financial peril. In any functioning democracy an independent media broadcaster forms an essential part of the checks and balances in that democracy. We have seen the rise of the alt right across Europe. Concurrently, we have seen fundamental change in the use of media platforms, which underpins this change. Media moguls control large parts of the national narratives in many democracies. There has been a dangerous evolution over the last 30 years. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch have the ability to control a lot of the global narrative and we cannot allow this to happen in Ireland. At a time when independent media is crucial to a functioning democracy, we have arrived at this dangerous intersection. We must put in place checks and balances that work for the public good; otherwise we will not see the likes of "Prime Time Investigates", and other journalistic probing, to ensure transparency and accountability. Priority funding for these types of programmes must be provided.

Where do we go from here? It is simple; we are where we are and we cannot go back forever but unless we take the right steps forward, nothing will change. To restore confidence across the board, for the staff and the people we serve in the world at large who are watching and waiting, there must be root and branch reform and a clean sweep. The existing board and the executive board must be replaced in order to give any credence to the notion of accountability and transparency. The die is cast and sympathies aside, the board must go. Our democracy is more important.

If we are to fund RTÉ the public must have confidence in it and the management and board must be independent. They must also be capable of challenging the establishment. To achieve this the State will have to fund it and in that regard this Government should consider setting up a cross-party committee, chaired by the President of the Supreme Court. This committee must not have a Government majority. The committee should deal with the funding of RTÉ and prove annually what the funding requirements of RTÉ are. This would ensure that the State broadcaster could not be beholden to the Government of the day.

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