A new deal to fund RTÉ – worth up to €725 million over three years – provides “almost unprecedented” certainty for a public sector organisation about its future funding, according to Taoiseach Simon Harris.
He was speaking ahead of a Cabinet meeting that is expected to sign off on the deal which will see funding comprised of licence fee income and direct State funding.
It is understood the broadcaster sought €255 million in State funding for next year; €260 million for 2026 and €265 million for 2027, a total of €780 million.
The agreed package will be less than that.
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Minister for Media and Arts Catherine Martin will outline the details of the long-awaited package today.
It is expected that the €160 television licence fee will be retained but the Government will commit to multiyear Exchequer funding to RTÉ under a deal hammered out between Ms Martin and other Ministers in recent weeks.
It represents a compromise between the two sides, with Ms Martin failing in her bid to have the television licence fee abolished but succeeding in securing multiyear Exchequer funding for the station.
It is also expected An Post will get €6 million in Exchequer funding over three years in order to improve licence collection.
Licence fee revenues have fallen in the wake of a series of controversies engulfing RTÉ since last summer.
Mr Harris said today’s Cabinet meeting “will make significant progress when it comes to public service broadcasting.”
He said it matters that public service broadcasting is funded properly “in an era” of misinformation and disinformation.
Mr Harris said the “saga” at RTÉ has been “a time of great worry for staff at RTÉ, a time of great concern about the future of RTÉ.”
He said “a lot of good work has been done” since by RTÉ and Minister Martin “worked extraordinarily hard on this”.
He said: “what you will see today is a significant milestone I believe in increasing exchequer support for public service broadcasting.”
Mr Harris said there will be a “multiannual certainty” that “most State agencies, public service organisations, departments would give their right arm for.”
He added: “The idea that for the first time in a very long time, if not ever, that RTÉ can actually plan on a multiannual basis to implement their strategy is very, very significant.”
Mr Harris also said: “the health service doesn’t know the level of funding it has for the next three years, the education sector doesn’t, the Garda Commissioner doesn’t.
“So I do think there needs to be a recognition, and I certainly believe there is by taxpayers, that actually providing certainty of funding for three years is almost unprecedented.
“In fact I can’t think really of any other element of the public service that has that level of certainty.”
He also sad that there were a number of principles that he felt “needed to be adhered to in this process.
“I felt that we couldn’t ask the taxpayer to put their hand in their pocket and pay any more in terms of an increased fee.”
Meanwhile Tánaiste Mcheál Martin has said that the new funding model for RTÉ should end the shortfall at the broadcaster “for the foreseeable future”.
Mr Martin told RTÉ News that work would have to continue on “revitalising and strengthening the collection system around the licence fee.
“It is an important independent source of revenue because one never knows when pressure will come on the Exchequer in terms of the allocation of public monies into the future.
“So that for me was always an important point.”
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