The Government's Forum on Broadcasting has called for the index-linking of RTÉ's licence fee, saying this would protect public service broadcasting and help remove the station from political influence.
However, the forum's interim report, which was presented to Cabinet yesterday, says this should happen only if the station meets rigorous new requirements to be agreed between it and the Government.
In the report published last night the forum also implicitly seeks a significant increase in the licence fee but makes no specific recommendation as to what it should be. It calls both for more resources for RTÉ and a higher ratio between licence fee and advertising revenue, aims which could only be achieved by a substantial increase.
Saying the new licence fee should then be inflation-proofed, the report goes on: "The Government should ensure through a series of adjustments over defined periods that the value of the new licence fee will not be eroded." This would remove public service broadcasting "somewhat from the arena of politics".
These recommendations run contrary to the stance taken by the last government which granted RTÉ only a modest fee increase last year and told it not to seek another one until 2003.
However, the report implies some acceptance of criticisms leveled at the station by that government's minister for communications, Ms Sile deValera. It says adjustments to RTÉ's funding arrangements should be dependent on the station's performance in meeting the requirements of a new charter on how to exercise its public service obligations.
The charter should be agreed between the Minister for Communications and the station, as should a detailed business plan, without which RTÉ would be barred from embarking on new developments.
The Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, yesterday invited further submissions on the interim report and said he hoped to bring specific proposals to Cabinet in three or four weeks. He said: "The report's recommendations will form part of the input into the policy direction for broadcasting."
The forum was set up last March by Mr Ahern's predecessor, Ms de Valera, who had declined an RTÉ request for a doubling of the fee from €89, granting only an €18 increase.
The terms of reference for the forum said it should exclude "issues specifically related to the adequacy or otherwise of the current RTÉ licence fee". However, its interim report will be seized upon by those in RTÉ and elsewhere who have accused the Government of underfunding the station.
But the report's call for RTÉ to produce a detailed business plan for the future will also be pointed to by the station's critics who accuse it of poor planning and cost control.