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

If no one talks about it as a potential solution, well then it's never going to be considered as a potential solution. Since many people don't value the output from rte, it is reasonable to suggest breaking it up and seeing what survives.

The thing is, the current setup suits both media and those in power. The funding issue would be resolved if the FF/FG duopoly was expected to continue but they are caught between the rock of FF not wanting to give SF the opportunity to squeeze RTE and the hard place of the public refusing to pay a charge.

The ultimate example of "Nice work, if you can find it"!

Paul Reid is a joke.

Ah FFS. It is just fraud at this point.

And this expensive nugget is revealed after the PAC report produced.

Bob Collins, Cathal Goan and Noel Curran need to be brought into the Committees to account for their actions as Directors General* during their period there.

*Just to be grammatical correct as DsG sounds wrong :)

He was made redundant on a scheme he created and then was paid €70k for a part-time job and he left some time in 2022. I imagine they could have got a new staff member for €70k who might split their time between the pension fund and some other work. Who has since replaced him? And are they working parttime ... Suppose Richard Collins needs a job!

Who edits The Currency? Oh yeah the former Deputy Chair Of RTÉ, Ian Keogh. Not saying that article is incorrect but I think you have to consider the role he played or didn't play as Deputy Chair.

The problem isn't Mr. Hayes' remuneration, but its certainly part of it, you have to ask a few questions: -

• Prior to him taking the role who ran the fund for RTÉ, was it done in house?
• Was the fund was making money when he was CFO in RTÉ up to his redundancy? (why would this not continue?)
• Is it fair that RTÉ make him redundant on a scheme he helped to create, in a role that could never be made redundant?
• Is it fair that RTÉ then hired him to act in this role after he'd been made redundant?
• Why did he leave the role? It seems he left in 2022, but the report suggests he involved in 2023 also when the Chair (Suin Ni R) questioned his role.
• Who took over his role and what are they paid?

The fund stopped accepting new entrants in 1989.

He got 70k a year to ensure an annual benefit statement was posted out to the members each year, and maybe make a few alterations to contributions.

Rich that the former head of HSE, who are now admitting to how much exit payments they've been making. Should stick his little hea out of the hole and express interest in rte chair.

There will never be anything new or even half honest done in this country while the same few weasels keep moving around, collecting large sums ofoney and pocketing more than fair pensions/ exit packages🤮

Where is the fresh blood? The fresh honest talent that can actually run it morally and legally correctly?

We're doomed I tell ya😁

It is v clear the licence fee/TV tax situation needs to change .... it is not necessarily people having to pay it but having to pay it and having NO SAY in RTE's schedules and what they do with OUR money is the problem ....

Sure many people are drifting away from 'traditional TV' ... people are getting Netflix, Sky, DVDs, etc. instead of watching RTE and the like ... rather than accepting this as the new normal ... which is convenient for RTE and the limited audience it caters for ... RTE should ask the question WHY are people abandoning them for these other services .... 99% the reason is because of the DIRE programmes on RTE .... the other services given people what they want to see ...

Taking a look at present you have dire shyght like First Dates .... DWTS with Doireann Garrihy is hardly what I want to see on Sundays either .... that vile warhorse Operation Transformation needs to be rested too .... at least we are not martyred with Dragons Den so we can be thankful for small mercies there ....

Meanwhile we have drama .... for every good one that comes around (and ends too suddenly) like Love/Hate or Kin we have innumerable poor fare like Striking Out, Finding Joy, Taken Down, Rebellion, etc. Other ones like Acceptable Risk aka Hidden Assets and The Gone may well have been interesting if there was a proper BUDGET in place ....

The REASON for all the poor programming is simple .... money is scarce because it is squandered on the inflated salaries of Tubridy et al over the years ... no one is worth that kind of money and Pat Kenny was on 950 K a year before the banking crisis as a famous Dublinese Elvis 'lookalike' once said on his programme ....

The people have enough of this and their exclusion from what goes on ... if we pay for something we need to have a SAY in it ... otherwise make your drivel and fund it yourself !!

To be fair, I believe the fraud threshold was reached a good while ago.

To generate credit notes to offset advertising from a main sponsor, who in turn uses the “windfall” to pay the star presenter for personal appearances who was guaranteed the money even if they didn’t happen.

Not sure we need any more to start a fraud investigation, but this is Ireland, so maybe a signed guilty statement written in blood is needed for the authorities to consider it …..we really don’t like prosecuting white collar crime 🤔

The only worse institution in the country than RTE is the HSE… and we’re seeing Reid’s name linked to the job. They only want lackeys so they keep the administration wage milk going…

Im going to ask the obvious question:

Why do managerial staff in RTE get paid multiples of what similar people elsewhere in the civil and public service get? And have additional perks like exit payments? And dont seem to be recruited via publicjobs/PAS etc.

There are CEOs/SecGens, CFO equivalents, HR managers etc managing larger and more complex areas with mutiples of the RTE budget who earn lots less and get a clean bill of health from C&AG.

Surely the easiest solution is to mirror civil service pay and terms?

As the ad said "because they're worth it", well at least they think they are. RTE is a basket case, the high pay that these people get in just a symptom of that. I can bet the excuse given is that "We have to pay the high wages to attract the right people to the role" which is the same excuse given for the enormous sums paid out to Tubridy, Duffy and few other wasters with the excuse we have to pay them high wages so that they are not poached, which we all know is a big pile of BS. Basically it comes down to no oversight in RTE as to how they are spending money and justifying that spend and that is the governments fault for not doing this or taking the DG's word for it.

Well the poaching was more for "the Talent" like Tubridy and his ilk. RTE constantly told us that the reason for high wages for "the Talent" was to keep them at RTE and not going elsewhere but as we have seen with Tubridy, other media where not exactly banging his door down when he was out of contract. Kinda similar for the management, they will claim that they need to pay high wages to attract the top people to the roles and it is not just RTE that are doing this but it is right across the Public Sector, remember that Robert Watt is on nearly 300k, the head of the HSE is on 400k. In some cases you wouldn't mind paying the high wages if you were getting value for money but we are just being ripped off.