Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

UNFORTUNATELY ….the semi -state ceos wanted the money but not the risk it would appear to me.

Bit like EI back in the day….things not going well?…… sure the govt will bail us out.

RTE reply.... "lessons will be learnt".. Again 😒

Apologies if Ive missed it on the thread, but, what information is being requested under FOI?

Karen Creed and an RTE crew are off doing some vital Public service broadcasting (for the public of Zambia that is) whilst enjoying top of the range hotel accommodation in Lusaka, a little holiday and possibly a safari (if they've time)

It seems to be an extension of RTE's 'All men are complete and total ***ts' mantra, as she reports on domestic and sexual violence against women and girls

"That's exactly what we want our tax money spent on RTE"…said nobody, ever

If they really, really had to bring this to our attention, could they not have paid a local freelance journo to do a report or two instead of spending many 1000's on it -

They're ******* trolling us at this stage

No I seem to be doing quiet well in that regard, either its my anger or my lack of diplomacy or both.

Water was funded using road tax afaik it that tax went to the local authorities I don't think UÉ was founded using motor tax, the point being made by people was that the government never planned to move this funding after the set up of water charges, but I am open to correction on this.

There is no hard line has to how taxes should be used you are correct, indeed Water is unusual as we know what tax is used for the infrastructure and part of it comes from motor tax, again I'd need more information on how the government were able to move that tax from roads over to water.

VAT on the other hand pays for a vast array of government spending not just roads or water.

You have to have a TV capable or receiving a signal you don't need the antenna, or the satellite. A TV is define as equipment capable of receiving a signal, even an old VCR is capable of receiving a signal, though that signal no longer exists, so if you have one but have no other equipment that is capable you would have to have a TV license, under the law as it now stands.

You may as well just let the exchequer fund RTÉ as it does TG4, the problem is that should taxes be hit due to a recession, the government will cut in such areas… as happened with TG4 fortunately for them from 2011 to 2018 the government part funded them from the license fee, avoiding any cuts to the service during that period.

Instead RTÉ took the brunt of that cut.

Well, wrong.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/motor-tax-cash-used-to-fund-irish-water/30968852.html

Any way. Rant over. If there was one person who I thought might get where I was coming from I thought it was you. Instead you sound like an apologist. Consider the rant closed.

I just want to say that I don't mean to defend the TV Licence Fee, I do think that one major issue is that by funding public service broadcasting via the exchequer is that you may end up cutting it during a recession.

I would say any funding must be have 3 aspects to it (six aspects no one expects the Spanish inquisition!)

1. The minister must agree to increases, it must be brought to the Dail rather than cabinet for approval
2. It should be a separate fund, potential new tax on telecommunication services it should try to be as low as possible, businesses can not claim the tax back, everyone pays.
3. The minister must be advised by the CnaM and ComReg on the amount of money required
4. It should be separate to the budget
5. It must been shown to be at arms length to the government.
6. A public AGM should be held every year.

said it a few times before and ill keep saying…rte shouldve been closed down,keep a couple of lads on to read the news and keep the servers going,fraud squad brought in,dee and all the rest questioned…theyre still pishing away money…our money by the way…how many did they have in Rome for the Popes funeral??and you can bet they werent staying in nonas b&b!! and yer one in Zambia,with probably a full camera crew too…??and now the IT failed project..?ffs enough is enough!! but sure the minister is "disapointed" and no doubt "lessons will be learned" and "checks and balances"

One of the worst cases was that of the US Presidential election, they send over at least 12 reporters, most of whom where women and I can only imagine that that was due to the idea that the glass ceiling was about to be broken. This on top of a really bad production, the icing on the cake Catherine Zappone's return.

A very bad performance by Miriam O'Callaghan, she was jet lagged (I am being kind), and had a rotation of clichéd questions, links to CBS were disastrous, graphics horrible, with not much from the reporters on the ground.

Along with guest both in the US and Ireland (what were those fees).

But this is typical of RTÉ. I know it is an important news story but their Washington Correspondent should have fronted the programme, with perhaps breaks back to Donnybrook and links to CBS pre-recorded rather then live, if required, maybe one extra report… which they have as their Global Security based in NY correspondent who as AFAIK is pay for by the Dept of Foreign Affairs. (the 3 journalist pay for by the dept seem to be rarely on, while I think their African correspondent has moved on, hence I think when that African news report was from an RTÉ reporter.

It is understood the department has allowed RTÉ to use the money earmarked for Ms Micheni for other foreign coverage.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news-media-applying-for-18m-state-grants-were-asked-to-consider-focusing-more-on-climate-change-and-rise-of-populism/a1369474080.html

According to the Daily Mail Bakhurst was "Left in the Dark on €3.6m IT write down"

A spokesperson says that he found out when the Minister asked for details of capital projects, as they had been reported in the RTÉ Annual report.

This seems to absolve Mr. Beforbes however the €3.6 Million was written of across 4 separate annual reports

2020 - Forbes / Doherty

2021 - Forbes / Doherty

2022 - Forbes / Ní Raghallaigh

2023 - Beforbes / O'Rourke

And Mr Bakhurst didn't think to ask about the €204k writen off in an annual report before he signed off on it, and the chair signed off on it.

Did Forbes know, did Doherty know, did Ní Raghallaigh know because their successors seemed to haven been happy to write of 204k that they knew nothing about.

Could Bakhurst be Back in Britain soon than he imagined?

https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0503/1510850-rte-it-write-down/

Question one is not a key question is an explanation

2) Did RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst only find out about the write-downs in March?

So here's an RTÉ reporter defense of the DG

1. Kay Before only knew of the write downs recently
2. Daily Mail splash (see post above)
3. Which according to her is correct, he found out in March 2025
4. So were the details hidden ?
5. No, according to RTÉ as they were in RTÉ published accounts
6. With board meeting in 2022 and early 2023 discussing them (Key Before arrives in July 2023)

3) How did the minister only find out in March?

So now she changes the focus of the questions, The minister is in his role since Jan 2025, 3 month's later he is made aware, basically on his appointment to the role, I might not like him but that is good going, especially since he asked for this detail from all Semi-states under his control.

She starts of by saying that the blame now goes over to NewERA, as they were advised of all of this over the course of the write down and were relatively happy with it.

She goes on to say "well hold on, if they knew, and RTÉ knew, how did the minister and department not know?" completely moving the blame back to the minister and department officials. (I argue that blame goes to the previous minister and those officials in the department, but lets face it Catharine Martin is a golden green so she escapes any real questions.)

4) Will RTÉ’s pending report for the minister explain in more detail why the IT project partly failed?

Again more of an explanation but the minister met with Kay and they have agree to publish the full report, they met in April.

5) Where does this leave the relationship between the Minister for Media and RTÉ?

The minister also showed confidence in Mr Bakhurst’s leadership saying that "the write-down pre-dates the current management" adding that: "I don't believe it was intentional, to be honest about it."

While he went on to say that "nonetheless this is a significant impairment, and it needs to be explained, both to me and to the public", it felt like a shift in public tone.

The problem for Kay Before is that, as I have post above, in 2024 as part of the 2023 annual report he signed off on RTÉ's financials, he should have made himself aware of that write down, his leadership team who advise him should have mentioned it, first the HR manager who he puts a lot of faith, and second the CTO who has largely been allow escape the controversy even though he sat around the table with the rest of them.

The same goes for Chair, who also signed off on the annual report.

It is not good enough that they only found out in March and then to say

"Sure, if we had all read each of the previous annual reports, sure, we would have all see the write down… much like both the DG and the Chair who signed off on said annual reports."

That’s like all of official Ireland, opw, county councils etc etc etc great for wasting public money

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