RTÉ needs to brought back under the auspices of the controller and auditor general, the TV licence needs to be scrapped and the public service broadcaster should be funded by the public exchequor to ensure accountability for its expenditure. Those are the recommendations of local Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy on the same day Media Minister Catherine Martin goes before an oireachtas committee to answer questions on her handling of the RTÉ expenses controversy.
Deputy Carthy has accused the government and minister of taking a "hands-off approach" since the RTÉ scandal broke seven months ago. He also called for the government to now take control of the public service broadcaster's finances in order to ensure accountability, transparency and to restore public confidence.
Speaking on the Wider View programme earlier, Deputy Carthy, said the RTÉ debacle had gone on too long. And, he argued that while the TV licence takes no account of people's ability to pay, if the government was in charge of RTÉ accounting, the public could at least have transparency and accountability. "Exchequor funding to RTÉ means we will have a situation where, of course, there will be integrity and editorial independence afforded to RTÉ as well as with everyone else who's engaged in public service broadcasting but, we will have accountability in terms of how public funding is expended because we cannot have a situation whereby hundreds, if not millions of euro has been spent in a away that doesn't actually have a level of accountability that I think will rightly demand."
