People Before Profit reveal plans for ad-free RTÉ and licence fee replacement

People Before Profit have revealed their plans to overhaul RTÉ as the payment scandal rumbles on. 

The party, which holds four seats in the Dáil, have said they would get rid of the licence fee, stop running ads on RTÉ, and fund RTÉ to the tune of €500 million via a 1% tax on all information and communication companies in Ireland.

The party’s plans said €1 billion would be invested in public service media, which would amount to €500 million being delegated to RTÉ and €500 million to other public service media companies per year, but said this would only come if “significant” democratic reforms were carried out at the RTÉ board.

A document published by People Before Profit said that implementing the tax would be “relatively simple”, saying that it would be based on a levy on the corporate tax that already exists within the Irish tax code.

As part of their proposed reforms, RTÉ board members would be subject to recall, and the recognition of trade union membership at the state broadcaster would be mandatory.

Speaking at the launch, Paul Murphy TD said: “the pay, top-ups, systemic and cultural scandal in RTÉ has rightly shocked and angered RTÉ workers and the public. It is clear that the rot has come from its commercial side. The slush fund was used to wine and dine advertising executives from private corporations. The sky-high salaries for presenters were justified on the basis of the ad revenue they brought in.”

“Instead of allowing the government to use this crisis to run-down and partially privatise public sector broadcasting, we should reform RTÉ and public service broadcasting more generally in this country. We want the licence fee to be abolished and for all commercial deals and advertising to be discontinued in RTÉ.”

“We want to replace the funding model for RTÉ so it is fully publicly funded. We would introduce funding of €1 billion, €500 million to RTÉ and €500 million to local public service media. This funding would be gathered via a Big Tech Tax on information and communication companies, and big tech. It would also be linked to substantial cultural and democratic reforms in RTÉ and especially at board level.”

People Before Profit’s call for a tax on big tech to fund journalism follows in the footsteps of similar plans carried out by the current leftist Spanish government, which introduced a “Google tax” in 2021 to fund local journalism across Spain.

As part of the tax, companies such as Facebook and Google must turn over a certain amount of their income in Spain per year, and that revenue is ringfenced and used to fund local media.

The idea has also been launched in France, with centrist President Emmanuel Macron passing a law in 2019 that makes tech companies turn over 3% of their income in France, which funds a broader swathe of the media landscape.

France scrapped their licence fee last year as a measure to help citizens with the cost-of-living crisis.

Public service broadcasting has faced a number of scandals across Europe this year, with the BBC engulfed in numerous controversies surrounding the behaviour of presenters and allegations of bias towards both the Conservative and Labour parties.