People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said that apparent “sweetheart deals” and top-up payments serve as a “kick in the teeth” to RTÉ’s relationship with the public and its own workforce.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said it was particularly galling that ordinary RTÉ workers have endured pay cuts and many of the workforce “don’t have proper contracts” and “had to live with a constant mantra from management that RTÉ are running out money” only to learn of these secret top-up payments.
“It is quite scandalous that, on the one hand, staggering salaries and, in this case, a secret top-up payment can be paid to a certain few whilst the majority of workers in RTÉ have taken cuts.”
The TD’s comments are reflected by NUJ’s Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley who said “At a time when trade unions are forced to engage in protracted negotiations over even minor payments, these revelations come as a particular shock. ”
“Most staff in RTÉ are on relatively modest salaries and the extravagant nature of these payments do not reflect the remuneration of the vast majority of RTÉ employees.”
The scandal has already caused RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes to step down, and now Boyd Barrett is calling for pay caps on the highest salaries in RTÉ, as well as the abolition of the license fee.
In its place, Boyd Barrett proposes funding the public broadcaster directly from progressive central taxation.
“The government needs to be held to account over the funding issues at RTÉ along with this scandal, which has done such damage to public confidence in the state broadcaster and the vast majority of the workforce who did not benefit in any way from exorbitant payments to a select few.”
“We need to see a commitment from the government to deliver the proper funding that the public service broadcaster receives- not through a regressive flat-charge license fee- but through progressive central taxation.”
The Dún Laoghaire TD said his party would be calling on Minister Catherine Martin to make a Dáil statement about the affair this week and to field questions from Opposition TDs.