Minister for Media Catherine Martin has said she hopes a decision on the future funding of RTÉ will be made before the summer.
The minister said direct exchequer funding is one of the options being considered, but said she will wait before the two expert reports are finished at the end of February before she makes any decision.
Minister Martin said she believed the Government had to do what is right for public service broadcasting and she hopes to make a decision as soon as possible.
She said the fact that local and European elections are being held in June is not something that would “sway” her decision.
The minister said legislation may be required, adding, that she would like to get it through both houses before this Government’s term is finished.
She said that protections are already in place to ensure RTÉ’s editorial independence and that half of last year’s public service funding came directly from the exchequer.
Social Democrats TD and Leas Cathaoirleach of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee Catherine Murphy said the PAC will certainly want to have RTÉ appear before it again.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week In Politics, she said: “We expected some of these reports before Christmas and we had hoped that we would conclude our hearings before Christmas and then for the Public Accounts Committee to write our own report and make recommendations following that.
“But obviously the one on, for example, previous redundancies is a key one we wanted to see and of course the one we got during the week with Toy Show The Musical and you could see really the governance failures there.”
Speaking on the same programme, Fine Gael TD Alan Dillion, who is also a member of the PAC Accounts Committee and the Oireachtas Committee on Media, said they are anticipating further communication with RTÉ.
“Certainly there has been a deep frustration on the ongoing inability for RTÉ to supply both our committees with a variety of requested information over the past number of weeks and also the delays with the subsequent publication of both the Grant Thornton report into Toy Show The Musical but also the McCann Fitzgerald report into the voluntary exit packages that were issued.
“So, we do envisage an engagement within the next fortnight.”
Green Party TD Ossian Smyth said RTÉ does have a value and public service broadcasting has a value, adding he is glad to hear the Government saying a decision on future funding for RTÉ will be made this summer.
He said there has to be some way that is fair to be people as it is unfair that some people are paying their television license fee while others are not.
Aontú leader Peadar Toibín said new people need to be put in charge of running RTÉ.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, he said: “If we want to set a new future for RTÉ, we need to draw a line under what happened and that means there needs a to be accountability and we need to have new people in charge of running RTÉ.”
Mr Toibín said he has no doubt that RTÉ should be funded in future through taxation.
“The reason the Government won’t make a decision over this is because they know there is simply no future in the license fee.
“They also know that it is impossible to bring about a charge such as a water charge – there is not a public appetite for it – and this dithering by the Government over and over again in relation to this is another threat to service public broadcasting in this State.”
