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

goose2005

jippo nolan wrote: »

Was at a wedding a couple of years ago where he was a guest, he didn’t bother going to the church service as he was afraid he’d be mobbed! By whom?

Maybe he was afraid the priest would throw holy water into the congregation, burning his skin

RabbleRouser2k wrote: »

What most ticks me off with Nicky Byrne is that his co-presenter, Jenny Greene, worked her way up to, deservedly, get his job. Instead, she's treated as a 'sideline' gig. And that is so insulting to any outsider looking on.

They even call it "The Nicky Byrne Show ... with Jenny Greene". Kind of like the Alan Partridge episode where he has a French co-host and insists "I'm the host, you're the co-host."

johnpatrick81

grahambo wrote: »

I should be noted that it would cost nothing to fire these people, no pension, no severance pay, etc

They all have their own companies which they are directors of. They then sell their services into RTE. They are not directly employed by RTE.
They're not even PAYE workers so they probably pay **** all tax too.

Honestly we should be marching to abolish or massively cut this license fee. Make it a subscription service and see how many people wanna pay by choice to line those fvcker's ridiculously full and expensive pockets.

goose2005

aroundthehouse wrote: »

They say you need a TV licence for holiday homes, mobile homes etc now, does that mean the tv licence inspector is going to go into a halting site and hand out fines?

have you ever seen BOPE raiding a Brazilian favela?

Gunmonkey

grahambo wrote: »

I should be noted that it would cost nothing to fire these people, no pension, no severance pay, etc

They all have their own companies which they are directors of. They then sell their services into RTE. They are not directly employed by RTE.
They're not even PAYE workers so they probably pay **** all tax too.

Even if they dont qualify for any severance or such as they are contractors, would imagine the heads at RTE would do some clever book-keeping to get a nice 6 figure sum into their hands if they ever left "for all the years of hard work..."

So how do they do it? Do they setup a 1 person LTD company (just need 1 shareholder/executive to establish one in Ireland) which they are the sole employee/director/shareholder of? And can assume the company only pays them a pittance (prob not even €60000) to avoid as much PAYE tax as possible but then they claim the dividend of the extra profits at the end of the year (seeing as the only overhead is the single paycheck and whatever small fees to keep the company running)?

Beta Ray Bill

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Even if they dont qualify for any severance or such as they are contractors, would imagine the heads at RTE would do some clever book-keeping to get a nice 6 figure sum into their hands if they ever left "for all the years of hard work..."

So how do they do it? Do they setup a 1 person LTD company (just need 1 shareholder/executive to establish one in Ireland) which they are the sole employee/director/shareholder of? And can assume the company only pays them a pittance (prob not even €60000) to avoid as much PAYE tax as possible but then they claim the dividend of the extra profits at the end of the year (seeing as the only overhead is the single paycheck and whatever small fees to keep the company running)?

Yes, they set up a LTD company here and another LTD company in another country IE Cayman Islands

RTE pays company here, the company here pays company in Cayman Island for "A Service" IE you're paying for something, not moving money.
The money is now somewhere where the tax man cannot get it.

Coupled to that there are expenses they can put on the company.
Any electronic equipment, business lunches, mileage, offices, etc.

road_high

I wouldn't mind the fee if it was something nominal in the range of 20-50 euro. But 160 euro per annum? And that's after you've paid all the other robbing taxes... Daylight robbery.

Kivaro

road_high wrote: »

I wouldn't mind the fee if it was something nominal in the range of 20-50 euro. But 160 euro per annum? And that's after you've paid all the other robbing taxes... Daylight robbery.

And to think that Dee Forbes wanted to increase it to €175 earlier in the year.
She is so out of touch with reality ............. much like how RTE reports a lot of the news.

She, and the rest of the RTE executive board should be fired for disservice to the people of Ireland. And without severance pay.

iseegirls

grahambo wrote: »

3) RTE should be doing WAY more to support sport in Ireland. They should have coverage of all the League of Ireland games (They should push L.O.I to conform with the calendar for the rest of a leagues in EU). They should be showing more GAA. More atheltics. They should have a van down at mondello park every weekend in the summer, there is always racing going on there. Rallying, Road racing always provide a good watch etc. These are things that the likes of Netflix and Amazon cannot compete against RTE with yet they will avoid taking on the likes of SKY.

In other words, RTE need to find their gap in the market and work a profit out of it. because asking the Tax payer to foot the bill for nothing is not acceptable.

Superb point made there. The same horse racing events are covered year after year, but what about the ones that aren't just a few miles away from the M50 or in Galway. Racing festivals in the likes of Tramore, Gowran, Clonmel have probably never been covered live by them.

AndyBoBandy

iseegirls wrote: »

Superb point made there. The same horse racing events are covered year after year, but what about the ones that aren't just a few miles away from the M50 or in Galway. Racing festivals in the likes of Tramore, Gowran, Clonmel have probably never been covered live by them.

The problem there is if the lads who drive the vans drive more than 37km a day, or anywhere longer than 1 hour, they’ll get their ‘long drive’ bonus as well as uplift for being ‘away from home’, which probably works out about €500 a day (€750 if they find their own accommodation).

(I pulled the above out of a hat, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not a million miles from the truth!! They have good unions in RTÉ)

Brendan Bendar

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The problem there is if the lads who drive the vans drive more than 37km a day, or anywhere longer than 1 hour, they’ll get their ‘long drive’ bonus as well as uplift for being ‘away from home’, which probably works out about €500 a day (€750 if they find their own accommodation).

(I pulled the above out of a hat, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not a million miles from the truth!! They have good unions in RTÉ)

Andy, you are a Mod on AH, I would definitely believe you.

ButtersSuki

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The problem there is if the lads who drive the vans drive more than 37km a day, or anywhere longer than 1 hour, they’ll get their ‘long drive’ bonus as well as uplift for being ‘away from home’, which probably works out about €500 a day (€750 if they find their own accommodation).

(I pulled the above out of a hat, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not a million miles from the truth!! They have good unions in RTÉ)

You mean a la Joe Duffy and Full Crew heading to Arklow on a Thursday afternoon at 3pm and overnighting there for a Funny Friday show that started at 1:45PM the next day?


He has previous (and worse) on this - he once went to Cork on a Monday for a show on Friday and had a sub in for the Tuesday - Thursday shows so he could "rest" in advance of the 75mins air time (inc. breaks) on Friday.


He's also on his 33rd day off this year btw - in the first week of August. How many of you have had over 6 weeks off this year?

road_high

Kivaro wrote: »

And to think that Dee Forbes wanted to increase it to €175 earlier in the year.
She is so out of touch with reality ............. much like how RTE reports a lot of the news.

She, and the rest of the RTE executive board should be fired for disservice to the people of Ireland. And without severance pay.

The likes of me has to earn circa 300 euro to generate the cash to pay this exorbitant charge. If the doozy cow had any grasp on reality she might look to drastically reduce the fee and make it more affordable and more would pay....
RTE irritate me beyond words, you'd swear they were the only ones capable of public service broadcasting or news in general. They always have the Government of the day in their pockets too which is why you hear all kinds of nonsense about a broadcasting fee and Revenue to collect it- for me that's bordering on Police State territory- who exactly decided/decides we should this fee in the first place? I never re call being asked and pretty sure a large majority would favour it being democratically removed from law.

TheRiverman

ButtersSuki wrote: »

You mean a la Joe Duffy and Full Crew heading to Arklow on a Thursday afternoon at 3pm and overnighting there for a Funny Friday show that started at 1:45PM the next day?


He has previous (and worse) on this - he once went to Cork on a Monday for a show on Friday and had a sub in for the Tuesday - Thursday shows so he could "rest" in advance of the 75mins air time (inc. breaks) on Friday.


He's also on his 33rd day off this year btw - in the first week of August. How many of you have had over 6 weeks off this year?

I'm sure on many of those days off Liveline he is busy using our licence fees making other RTE programs :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Brendan Bendar

TheRiverman wrote: »

I'm sure on many of those days off Liveline he is busy using our licence fees making other RTE programs :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Popcorn tiiiiiime!


Aaaaaand away.........

ButtersSuki

TheRiverman wrote: »

I'm sure on many of those days off Liveline he is busy using our licence fees making other RTE programs :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Busy writing books about the death of children more like; which, when he's in, he'll plug to death (no pun intended).

Gunmonkey

road_high wrote: »

The likes of me has to earn circa 300 euro to generate the cash to pay this exorbitant charge. If the doozy cow had any grasp on reality she might look to drastically reduce the fee and make it more affordable and more would pay....

Why would they in their hole? Its not like Netflix or Sky having to price competitively, its backed up by law so they can do whatever they like and the gov/Revenue will enforce it! Given the bluster and BS out of Forbes, as soon as theres a system of forcing compliance (Revenue seemed to be tipped for this) that cost will spiral up as the blowback of people dropping paying it will be negated by the collectors being more proactive.

Give it ten years and wouldnt doubt it edging close to €250 a year.

road_high

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Why would they in their hole? Its not like Netflix or Sky having to price competitively, its backed up by law so they can do whatever they like and the gov/Revenue will enforce it! Given the bluster and BS out of Forbes, as soon as theres a system of forcing compliance (Revenue seemed to be tipped for this) that cost will spiral up as the blowback of people dropping paying it will be negated by the collectors being more proactive.

Give it ten years and wouldnt doubt it edging close to €250 a year.

It should be removed from law- whoever enshrined that on day one would want a kick up the hole. It’s not like laws around medicine or education things that actually matter

Muahahaha

ButtersSuki wrote: »

He's also on his 33rd day off this year btw - in the first week of August. How many of you have had over 6 weeks off this year?

Would you post your Wurkday calendar here so people can get a sense of how lazy Duffy actually is

suicide_circus

and if you have the audacity not to help pay his enormous salary while having the audacity to own a television, the state can imprison you.

Man.Of.De.Peeple.

I'd prefer if RTÉ spent the licence fee on world-class Irish documentaries/films/programmes that supported Irish jobs and promoted Irish culture, history, society & current affairs.

Paying a licence fee so that RTÉ can buy the rights to some American/British show or sport that you can watch for free off one of the foreign channels/online is a complete waste of our money. RTÉ could easily flourish without the money from advertising by cutting all the superfluous costs and becoming more focused on being an Irish public service, rather than a mere distributor of all that vacuous commercial crap from the US & Britain. Focus on producing top class public interest investigations, documentaries and all the other stuff worthy of respect. If, for financial reasons, that means RTÉ broadcasts for 7 hours a day rather than 17 hours it would be worth it if those 7 hours were top quality. That focus on Irish culture and issues should be the RTÉ niche public service in this increasingly monotone/globalised world.

ButtersSuki

Here to serve caller, here to serve:

Muahahaha wrote: »

Would you post your Wurkday calendar here so people can get a sense of how lazy Duffy actually is

TWODAY'S De Brand NEW & IMPROVED so to speak 2-18 Joe Duffy Wurkday Calculator and dat:



Wurkdays in 2-18 and dat: 152
Joe Shows: 119
No Show Joe Shows: 33
Breakeens 4 Joe: 33
PBH (de full-time host of de show) Shows: 28
PBH guest appearances and dat: 1
D'Omen Shows: 4
AN Udder Shows: 0
Good Fryday No Show by nobody at all at all: 1

NEW FEATURE SO TO SPEAK:
Fateen's Estimated Fees (De FEF Matrix so to speak) to date dis year:
AT LEAST €297,500*

(not including de EXTRA FEES for 3 days of De Beast From De East TV + Radio Simulcast Xtravaganza + likely "Danger Money" for travelling to and from wurk in de snow and dat).

*de fees are calculated at €2,500 per show x days dat Fateen is in so to speak. Dose fees are likely conservative and outdated as day are 2 years old so to speak.
I'm including Good Fryday as a Wurkday as it is not an official Bank Holiday/Holiday Day. Even Pat Kenny is in Newstalk FFS, but no-one in RTE of course of course.

DON'T FORGET -
"We're here all summer" sez he.

fritzelly

Did you add in the free advertising costs?

Muahahaha

Thanks ButtersSuki. 297,000 earned by Duffy so far this year while he has already taken six weeks holidays. The Irish people are being taken for mugs by RTE.

ButtersSuki

fritzelly wrote: »

Did you add in the free advertising costs?

I got an A in Honours Maths caller, not AstroPhysics. Also, my calculator only goes to 124 digits.

ButtersSuki

Muahahaha wrote: »

Thanks ButtersSuki. 297,000 earned by Duffy so far this year while he has already taken six weeks holidays. The Irish people are being taken for mugs by RTE.

At least - this is based on fees from a few years ago; there's not a chance in hell they haven't increased since.


The reason I include the holidays is to allow for increased fees + increased holidays being spun by RTE as a reduction in fees/no increase. The way RTE would have you believe it, a year to year comparison is accurate but that's just topline; the devil is in the detail. You need to compare no. of shows on a yearly basis and the cost per show in the form of fees.

fritzelly

You mean they don't tell you the show costs less to run when Joe is not "working" for them

RabbleRouser2k

iseegirls wrote: »

Superb point made there. The same horse racing events are covered year after year, but what about the ones that aren't just a few miles away from the M50 or in Galway. Racing festivals in the likes of Tramore, Gowran, Clonmel have probably never been covered live by them.

They may very well start covering those races-they've lost so much coverage to Tv3 and Sky, for example (Thanks Ryle Nugent). TG4 covers Listowel, and they do a darn good job of it too.

Have to do something to justify that license fee.

fritzelly

Always thought TG4 had far higher production values - damn even the weather reports are better than RTE, I mean c'mon

RabbleRouser2k

fritzelly wrote: »

Always thought TG4 had far higher production values - damn even the weather reports are better than RTE, I mean c'mon

Whoever is involved in budgetting and production costs is wringing every penny out of that, and definitely getting more bang for their buck.

If you compare, say, 'The Voice of Ireland' to 'Rogha agus Togha'-which were/ are both naff, but I digress- you see some quality production costs on the latter.
But the costs on the former were extremely high. Kathryn Thomas and co aren't cheap either.

The tg4 Weather crew are legendary on this isle, and their halloween stunts have gone global. The RTE weather crew are 'legendary' for all the wrong reasons-production screwups, many, many, many mistakes, and just an overall lack of quality.

fritzelly

Imagine what they could do with the money RTE get...