Changes to the structure of RTE are vital if public trust is to be restored, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said yesterday.
The Fine Gael leader revealed he’d spoken with Media Minister Catherine Martin on Friday and was briefed on her meeting with RTE ’s incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst. Speaking at an event in Shannon, Co Clare, Mr Varadkar said: “I think we need to see change in RTE.
“Without change I don’t think trust can be restored.” He added: “I understand the new Director General, Kevin Bakhurst, is going to make some announcements on Monday in relation to changes to the organisation, the way the management is structured and also is going to deal with issues around conflicts of interest.
“Certainly, I’m very reassured with what he’s said to Government but it’s important, I think, that he be allowed to set out those plans on Monday, to talk to the staff first … and then to inform the wider nation about some of the changes he’s going to make and he’s going to make them quickly.”
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The Taoiseach also reiterated that he will continue to pay the annual €160 TV licence fee. He said: “I hope people will still pay the TV licence. I certainly will, not just because it’s the law but because it funds so much valuable broadcasting – news, sport, Irish language programming, drama, children’s TV, the RTÉ archives.
“That’s why I’d encourage people to continue to pay the licence fee.”
However he conceded that the TV licence system needs to be “overhauled” describing it as “a really old-fashioned way of collecting revenue”.
He added that it was “based on ownership of a TV, a device that many people just don’t have any more.
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