Leo Varadkar: Any Government bailout of RTE would not come without conditions

A Government bailout for RTE would not come without conditions attached, the Taoiseach has said.

Leo Varadkar said that, as of now, only interim funding had been sought by RTE which had been sought before the broadcaster became engulfed controversy over governance and finance.

RTE operates on a dual funding model, with 55% of its income, 200 million euro a year, brought in by way of the licence fee, which costs Irish households with a television 160 euro a year.

In recent years, RTE has emphasised a funding crisis at the broadcaster and called for reform of the licence fee, stating that millions were being lost annually by people evading the fee and using the RTE Player on phones and tablets.

There are fears among staff at RTE that the crisis over underdeclared fees to its star presenter Ryan Tubridy, as well as spending for advertising clients, could affect revenues further.

The government did not accept a recommendation from the commission on the future of media in Ireland, in a report published last summer, that RTE should be directly funded by the Exchequer.

It said that pending the reform of the licence fee, funding for RTE would be considered as part of the budget process.

Mr Bakhurst said on Monday that he did not know what level of interim funding would be needed, but that the broadcaster would “need to see what our finances are (and) provide the right information”.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Varadkar said: “RTE has a long standing request in for interim funding and that’s being considered at the moment.

“But that’s been there long before the recent controversy.

“At the moment, there’s been no request for additional financial support, no request for a bailout.

“If that were to arise, we’d have to consider it when it arises and cross that bridge when we come to it.

“But government has had to bail out agencies, state companies, or other entities before, and it’s never come without conditions.

“But I’m not going to prescribe what they are now.

“But what I do want to say to taxpayers, and to assure them that if we’re put in the position where we have to provide additional finance to RTE, as a consequence of the recent controversy, we’ll make sure that their money is well spent, and that the appropriate conditions or controls apply.

“Separate from that, we do have a longer standing issue of reforming the TV licence fee, a very old-fashioned way of collecting revenue, linked to devices that many people just don’t own anymore, and of course, a fund that goes almost entirely to RTE, which isn’t fair, because there’s more to public service media than than RTE and I believe this should be the Government, this should be the Dail that deals with this issue once and for all.

“Reform was put off in the past for lots of different reasons but it is now long overdue and I’m determined to see that through during this government’s time in office.”