Brian Stanley on RTE Bill: Oversight, Outsourcing & Pay
Brian Stanley addresses the Dáil on the RTE Bill, welcoming increased oversight but warning of serious risks in outsourcing and weak accountability. He outlines concerns about agent power, presenter pay, transparency and the impact of levies on independent radio.
Accountability and oversight: Brian Stanley recalls his time as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and says removing RTE from the Control and Auditor General was a mistake. He welcomes provisions that restore a second level of oversight and direct accountability to the House, and urges a fully functioning Board and Audit Committee to hold management to account.
Pay and transparency: Stanley argues for clearer treatment of presenters and producers, and calls for publication of the top 50 earners across RTE annually. He repeats earlier PAC recommendations on appointments, remuneration and performance assessment and welcomes the monitoring role envisaged for the Commissioner.
Outsourcing, agents and levies: The deputy warns that outsourcing could privatise the "fat" of RTE, create bogus self-employment and leave workers without terms or union protection. He presses the Minister to set strict rules of engagement with agents and to engage with Commissioner Mann over steep increases in the broadcasting levy on independent radio stations.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
There is some good parts to this Bill. I have some serious concerns about it as well. I want to say that the decision in the 1990s to remove the power of the Control and Auditor General and indeed direct accountability to the Public Accounts Committee of RTE was a huge mistake of the Government at that time. During the time I was Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, during that four and a half years, when we started looking at RTE, the worst it got, when we met at the first couple of hearings, was every attempt not to answer questions. I'm trying to be charitable when I say this, what was clear by the end of those hearings and that period of the Dáil, of that four and a half year period, was that there was a cabal at the top of it that was run by them, for them and for anybody who agreed with them. That had to change and there were over 20 recommendations out by the Public Accounts Committee. Central to that, I proposed this way back at the start. I was amazed to find that they weren't accountable to the Control and Auditor General or directly accountable to the Public Accounts Committee. Indeed, there was a reluctance to come before the Public Accounts Committee Minister and we had to go to extreme lengths to actually drag them in through the door initially. The previous management. So, I welcome that part of it and this is important, that second level of oversight is there and direct accountability to this House and to the taxpayer and to the public and public money. It's a key recommendation. The role of the Board as well, Minister, and this is a key for you to make sure of this, that the Board is fully functioning and has their eyes on what's going on. That was clear, that there wasn't a great connection between Board and management. Despite some people on the Board, some people are doing good work. The same with the Audit Committee. Appointments in relation to the making of appointments and decision making, that's key. And the pay of top earners as well, that's very, very important. And all that was all in the recommendations. And I acknowledge progress has been made on a lot of that. On the issue of presenters' pay, there's a lot done, but more has to be done. This issue of producers' presenters, if somebody's known as a presenter in the public mind, and that's a huge part of the work, then they should be counted as a presenter. And I would say, now looking at it, that the pay of at least the top 50 earners across the Board in R&D should be published annually, regardless of what the role is, right across the top of the organisation and the body. I also want to touch on agents. This came up a lot. The one thing that came to light fairly quickly, as we started to dive deep into it from the Public Accounts Committee, was that an agent, one agent, could get themselves into a position of being able to let the whole lot spin on their hand. And that must never be allowed to happen again. And the rules of engagement with agents need to be very, very clear. Literally, on a game of bluff, you would have to be, if they were poker players, to be very good at winning. That's all I would say. But to allow somebody to get that excessive control. So there has to be transparency in relation to that, and there has to be very, very clear rules of engagement. And that needs continuous examination by yourself, Minister, and by the Department, to make sure that never happens again. Transparency is obviously important in terms of accounts, remuneration and performance. The monitoring role of Commissioner Naaman in the Bill welcomed that, assessing it and appraising the performance. The media overall, including what's going to the independent sector, I'm not going to argue against that, the independent radio stations, etc. But that does need to be monitored. Just in relation to the outsourcing of production. One of the issues we came up with, actually, before we started diving into management, was the issue of bogus self-employment. This issue of outsourcing the fat, and make no mistake about it, it's the fat of RTE that's going to be privatised. The quality, there will be more of this, there's bogus self-employment in RTE. It won't be counted as bogus self-employment when it's the independent sector. And the jobs, the people will be, as outlined already, the jobs will be, there will be contractors, there will be individual companies. They won't have union representation, they won't have terms and conditions. And they will have if and when contracts. If and when contracts. That's a very uncertain way to live. When the cost of a house in Dublin, to get a mortgage on a house, you have to have permanent jobs, you have to have permanent income. And just in the little bit of time I have left to Ciancora, just the broadcasting levy that's being put on the independent radio stations, that increased by 39% this year, the levy that's put on by Commissioner Mann. I know it's a little bit detached from this, Minister, but I want you to hear this. That 69% on average over two years, one radio station, the one in my area, is 2.8% of turnover, not profit, nearly 3% of turnover. That's a huge levy. And that's on top of all the other overheads that's gone up. Income wages, and that's good that that's gone up, but insurance, energy and all the rest, they are competing with tech giants and other platforms. And it's important that that's reined in. Commissioner Mann says they're committed to ensuring value for money by maximising cost effectiveness. You have a responsibility to make sure of that. And I'd ask you, Minister, just a final word, that you would address that. That latest hike, that does need to be, if you could engage with Commissioner Mann on that. But look, the outsourcing is the part I'm concerned about in this bill. Thank you Deputy Senator.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
