The director general of RT╔ has challenged a consultants' report on which the Government based its decision to turn down the national broadcaster's request for a £50 (€63) licence fee increase. Mr Bob Collins has claimed that part of the report "is at variance with the facts".

Mr Collin's made the claim in a letter sent last month to Mr Donal O'Connor, the senior partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who carried out the review. The letter was forwarded to the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands by the consultants and has been released under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the letter, Mr Collins questions the interpretation by PwC of information supplied by RT╔ in April after the consultants queried the original October application. He quotes PwC as saying that RT╔ believed advertising revenue would be higher than originally thought over the next three years when "the only conclusion to be drawn" from the information provided was that RT╔'s commercial revenue "was likely to be less than originally forecast in the October submission".

Mr Collins said: "There is a real possibility that this consideration might have weighed with the Government in taking its decision on the licence fee."

PwC responded to Mr Collins, saying they had forward the letter to the Department and that "it is not appropriate for us to comment directly to you in regard to our report to the Department".

The consultants added that they had informed the Department of comments made by RT╔ concerning the downturn in commercial revenue and "had regard to this" in forming the conclusion set out in the report.

The Department's secretary general, Mr Philip Furlong, subsequently met Mr Collins to discuss the issue and other points arising from the licence application. "I said that the Department's wish was that RT╔ should direct all requests for clarification etc, to the Department and not the consultants. In that connection it seemed to us that the RT╔ position on advertising had not been misrepresented," he said.

He told the director general that RT╔ should, address the weakness identified in the report so as to "strengthen the Minister's hand" when the issue comes up again. "Any other approach would fly in the face of political realities," he said. PwC subsequently wrote to Mr Collins confirming that there was no inaccuracy in its report and that they had used the information provided by the broadcaster. RT╔ sources said yesterday that the matter had not been taken any further by the director general.

PwC was hired by the Department in November to review the application by RT╔ last October for a increase of £50 in the licence fee to £120.

Although PwC found that RT╔ needed a licence fee increase in order to be able to carry out its public broadcasting remit, it was highly critical of the application.

A briefing document prepared on the report for the Minister in February said PwC concluded "the figure of £50 appears to have been arrived at on the basis that it was the maximum that RT╔ could credibly put forward and that the construction of the supporting case was devised around this figure".

RT╔ subsequently provided additional information which was reviewed by PwC who reported back at the end of May.

The Government decided to grant an increase of £14.50 which was considered sufficient to allow the organisation maintain its current level of service without having to tap into all of its considerable cash reserves.

The Minister also agreed to look at a further increase to meet the costs of new programming and digital television once RT╔ had implemented its restructuring plan and other changes. RT╔ is hoping to make its new submission at the end of October.