The Media Minister has defended spending over half a million euro to date on reports into RTÉ. Yesterday three reports were published with 116 recommendations into how both the broadcaster and government can improve governance and culture there.
Sheila Naughton reports: "Over the next six weeks both the department and RTÉ will set about outlining their implementation plans for each recommendation.
At the same time Government will discuss the future funding model with two main options on the table - either through the revenue collected from a TV licence or the exchequer model. A decision has been promised on this by the July recess.
"However, to date these reports have cost the department around €574,000 with that expected to rise to €1 million following the submission of outstanding invoices. Media Minister Catherine Martin says her Department will cover the full cost, none of it will be passed to RTÉ. She says that the depth of the financial and governance issues, as well as the reputational damage for RTÉ merited this approach - describing the cost as "value for money".
