Media minister denies writing RTE ‘blank cheque’ after funding plans announced

The Irish media minister has denied writing a “blank cheque” to RTE after signing off on multi-million-euro top-offs to unpredictable licence fee revenues.

The Government has agreed a 725-million-euro funding programme for the national broadcaster over the next three years, in a move described by Minister Catherine Martin as “unprecedented”.

The decision was approved by Cabinet on Wednesday, after months of wrangling between ministers about how the broadcaster should be funded.

Under the plan, RTE will get 225 million euro in funding next year from TV licence fee revenue – topped up by direct Exchequer funding.

This will rise to 240 million euro in 2026 and 260 million euro in 2027.

TV licence sale receipts have been declining for years and amounted to 123 million euro in 2023.

Under the new plan, Ms Martin said the 225-million-euro in year one would consist of approximately 105 million euro from traditional TV licence sales and 78 million euro from “free” TV licences provided through social welfare schemes, while the remainder would come from direct Exchequer funding of 42 million euro through the Department of Media.

That 42-million-euro is two million euro more than the interim funding provided to RTE this year.

Ms Martin would not provide a similar breakdown for 2026 and 2027 as she said she did not know what TV licence revenues would be for those years.

When pressed by reporters on whether this was a “blank cheque” for the organisation, where the Exchequer would make up for a long-term trend of declining TV licence revenues, the minister rejected the characterisation.

Ms Martin instead offered an alternative scenario where the money directly provided by the Exchequer could decrease if licence fee payments increase.

At a press conference on Wednesday, she said: “That’s why the essential part of this is strengthening the collection method.”

An Post, which is in charge of collecting the 160-euro annual fee per household, also received six million euro to improve its process.

There have been varying views within Government on whether the TV licence fee should be abolished, with Taoiseach Simon Harris stating that he felt increasing the fee would have been unpalatable to the public.

Ministers had committed to making a decision on a future funding model for RTE during this government term after revenues from the TV licence fee fell following a financial and governance crisis at Ireland’s public-service broadcaster.

In the wake of the scandal, RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst committed to reducing its highest earners’ fees, invest in digital and technology, and cut spending this year by 10 million euro.

The reform plan includes a redundancy programme. Ms Martin refused to provide a figure for how much of the new funding would be used to implement the scheme.

Reacting to the Government’s overall plan, Mr Bakhurst said it would allow the organisation to continue necessary transformation and “restoration of trust”.

He added: “We will not take the opportunity that today’s announcement presents for granted.”

But rival independent network Virgin Media said it was “extremely disappointed” over a lack of recognition of others providing public-service broadcasting.

In a statement, its managing director Aine Ni Chaoindealbhain said RTE would be in a more dominant position than ever before and added: “Virgin Media Television has no alternative but to review all options including our position with regards to our existing public-service broadcasting commitments.”

Mr Harris praised the media minister for “settling the question” of RTE funding.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin said the “retention and strengthening” of the licence-fee collection system was important because “one never knows when pressure would come on the Exchequer” for future direct allocations to RTE.

The National Union of Journalists expressed “grave disappointment” over the retention of the current TV licence system but welcomed increased funding for RTE.

It further noted that the overall funding figure was 55 million below what RTE had sought for the time period.

RTE staff are “dismayed and disappointed” that the TV licence was not scrapped, according to their trade union group (TUG).

TUG co-chair Emma O Kelly said: “The Government has chosen to ignore the writing on the wall and stick with a TV licence charge. This is beyond disappointing.”

Elsewhere, a further 22.2 million euro will be provided for other public-service projects in 2025, including 10 million euro from the Exchequer for the Media Fund schemes – an increase of four million euro on 2024.