![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00104b4d-614.jpg\"\/)
\nKevin Bakhurst said RT\u00c9 has not received additional funding from the Government so far this year<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 Director General Kevin Bakhurst has “categorically refuted” media reports that the broadcaster is seeking a bailout.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 executives told TDs in a briefing document ahead of their appearance before the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee (PAC) tomorrow that it will need an additional \u20ac13.49 million more in State funding this year.<\/p>\n
Its executives projected that \u20ac54.79m is needed this year, compared to \u20ac41.3m last year.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Bakurst said in a statement today that RT\u00c9 is not looking for any additional public funding “beyond the commitment already provided by the Government”.<\/p>\n
He said the projections are clear that the additional funding for 2026 is less than the anticipated \u20ac15m committed by the Government.<\/p>\n
He said RT\u00c9 will deliver its strategy with the funding commitment already given “which we remain grateful for”.<\/p>\n
Mr Bakurst said the Government committed to providing public funding to RT\u00c9 of \u20ac725m over three years, from 2025 – 2027.<\/p>\n
“This is phased as follows over the three years; \u20ac225 million in 2025, \u20ac240 million this year and \u20ac260 million in 2027,” he said, adding that “importantly” includes TV licence revenues.<\/p>\n
He said that last year, during the first year of the public funding commitment, RT\u00c9 received \u20ac41.3m in additional public funding from the Government on top of TV licence revenues of \u20ac183.5m.<\/p>\n
“In line with the 2025 figure of \u20ac225 million, total public funding received by RT\u00c9 in 2025 was \u20ac224.8 million,” said RT\u00c9’s Director General.<\/p>\n
He said the figures for this year will not be finalised until the end of the year when total TV licence revenue figures for 2026 are known.<\/p>\n
He said this figure will then allow the Government to determine the additional public funding needed to reach the \u20ac240m commitment for this year.<\/p>\n
He stressed that RT\u00c9 has not received any additional funding from the Government so far this year.<\/p>\n
\nKevin Bakhurst said RT\u00c9 has not received additional funding from the Government so far this year<\/p>\n
In a briefing document sent to TDs, RT\u00c9 executives highlighted a “downward trend” in TV licences, with a 5% decline in the number of licences sold to the end of May this year compared to last year.<\/p>\n
The national broadcaster explained that last year over 80% of RT\u00c9’s public funding came from licence fee income.<\/p>\n
Under Irish law, only households who have a television or equipment capable of “receiving a broadcast television signal” must pay the TV licence.<\/p>\n
It said there has been a 19% decline in TV licence sales since 2022.<\/p>\n
The broadcaster said the estimated number of homes without TVs is around 424,0002 or 20.8% of the total household population.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 said the number of ‘no-TV homes’ has “increased steadily” particularly among young people and in urban areas.<\/p>\n
It said many of those homes “rely exclusively on laptops, tablets and smartphones” and “regularly access” public service media through platforms like the RT\u00c9 Player, social media clips and podcasts.<\/p>\n
In July 204, then media minister Catherine Martin announced multi-annual funding for RT\u00c9. This comes to total funding of \u20ac725m over three years up to 2027.<\/p>\n
In his opening statement to the PAC tomorrow, Mr Bakhurst will tell TDs that RT\u00c9 has reversed the trend of “reporting deficits and strengthened our financial position”.<\/p>\n
He will say this is due to “tighter cost controls and supported by our new commercial strategy, which has driven digital revenue and is paying dividend”.<\/p>\n
He will say that this is underpinned by the multi-annual funding commitment made in 2024.<\/p>\n
“This certainty has enabled proper planning and contracting and we would appeal very strongly that a similar commitment is made in 2027 when this next comes up for review,” he will say.<\/p>\n
Mr Bakhurst will say a recent review by Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n showed a “recognised funding challenge for public service media in Ireland”.<\/p>\n
“The commitment to the first multi-annual funding agreement was a critical step in addressing that funding volatility,” Mr Bakhurst will say.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach criticises constant undermining of TV licence fee<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has criticised the constant undermining of the TV licence fee, adding it “only makes things worse”.<\/p>\n
Speaking in the D\u00e1il, he said the house has been divided over funding for public service broadcasting.<\/p>\n
He was responding to Fine Gael TD Joe Neville who said RT\u00c9 claim a drop in TV licence fees is down to households not having televisions.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Neville said: “We all know that’s only part of the story. A major cause of the recent drop in sales is possibly due to the fact that there’s been financial scandals and unnecessary overspends.”<\/p>\n
The deputy said these issues include \u20ac35,000 spent on limousines last year and RT\u00c9 sending 41 staff members to cover Ireland’s World Cup playoff match in Czechia at a cost of \u20ac57,000.<\/p>\n
Mr Neville said PAC will look for clarity from RT\u00c9 executives tomorrow.<\/p>\n
“We need clarity on what the future funding model is,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin agreed that issues within RT\u00c9 have to be “interrogated”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 Director General Kevin Bakhurst has “categorically refuted” media reports that the broadcaster is seeking a bailout. RT\u00c9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-539249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}