PUBLIC RELATIONS consultant and former government adviser Tom Savage has been appointed chairman of a new interim RTÉ authority.
Other members include former Arts Council chief executive Patricia Quinn, film-maker Alan Gilsenan and Karlin Lillington, who writes on technology for The Irish Times.
The authority will only operate for six months, when new arrangements will come into force, following the enactment of the Broadcasting Bill.
All members are expected to transfer to the new structure, apart from one, Emer Finnan, who was on the outgoing authority and agreed to sit on the interim authority to provide continuity.
Currently, the Minister for Communications recommends seven appointments to the Cabinet, with the eighth member elected by RTÉ staff and the ninth being the RTÉ director general.
This interim board does not have an RTÉ staff representative as the election has been held over until the Broadcasting Bill is enacted.
When that comes into force, 12 members will sit on the authority. The Oireachtas committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources will decide on four names to present to the Minister for appointment.
The Minister will appoint six members, one member will be elected by RTÉ staff and the director general will sit on the authority in an ex-officio capacity.
The outgoing authority, chaired by another PR executive, Mary Finan, ended its term of office on December 31st.
Tom Savage, a former Catholic priest, is chairman of the Communications Clinic, where his wife Terry Prone and son Anton Savage also work. He was communications adviser to taoiseach Albert Reynolds and has advised senior politicians for more than 35 years.
The Queen’s University Belfast graduate became the first director of social welfare in the Archdiocese of Armagh in 1968.
He later moved to the Catholic Communications Institute and on to Carr Communications. Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Savage said that the authority would have to look at an increase in the licence fee immediately as the station was facing "very very sizeable cutbacks" in its advertising revenue.
He said he would also be pressing for RTÉ’s speedy switchover to digital services so that viewers would not be lost to other providers.
He added he was “a stickler for standards and precision” and would be promoting the need to uphold the standards and values of public service broadcasting.
Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan said the changes to the way the authority was chosen were “a real step in the right direction” in efforts to reform the appointments process in State boards.
Giving an Oireachtas committee the power to choose four members was “a major change”, Mr Ryan said and made a direct connection between the licence payers and RTÉ.
“The public pay for the RTÉ service and I believe that the authority should focus on allowing RTÉ the freedom to cover the smallest story, to go to the furthest village and to delve deep to find the truth,” he said.
This was difficult and expensive work, but RTÉ had done this “through good times and bad” before, Mr Ryan said.
“RTÉ should also continue to develop talent inside and outside of its organisation to help the Irish film, television and radio sector to flourish,” he said.
An Post collected almost €171 million in TV licences last year, and initiated 14,000 prosecutions against those who failed to pay the €160 fee.
Figures obtained from An Post, which is responsible for collecting the licence fees on behalf of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, show that 1,067,515 television licences were sold last year, bringing in a total of €170,802,400 for the department.
The Department of Justice recently confirmed that 54 people were jailed in 2008 after failing to pay fines imposed for not having a TV licence.
This was a 40 per cent increase on the 2007 figure of 32.
Some 220 people have been imprisoned over the past five years for failing to pay the fines.
RTÉ Authority
- Chairman Tom Savage
- Patricia Quinn, former chief executive of the Arts Council.
- Karlin Lillington, Irish Times technology columnist.
- Fergus Armstrong, former chairman of McCann Fitzgerald solicitors.
- Alan Gilsenan, film and documentary maker.
- Seán O'Sullivan, managing director of Seabrook Research Ltd.
- Emer Finnan, EBS director of strategic development.
- Cathal Goan, RTÉ director general.
