'Targets weren't being met' - Canney on €20m RTÉ cut

Now, from a cut in carbon tax on heating oil to a pledge for one hundred and forty new and enhanced public transport services, and a fifteen million euro package for rural pubs, there will be hope in government that Budget 2027 may have done enough to assuage the pressure on people living in rural Ireland. We're joined now by Sean Carney, Minister of State at the Department of Transport. And, Minister, you're very welcome to the program.

Thank you very much.

Um, I want to get to some of the measures announced by the Department of Transport in just a moment. But first, uh, we might start with that row, uh, that's dominating the headlines in the last twenty-four hours, that row between Minister Patrick O'Donovan and RTE over a funding cut of twenty million euro. Did you know the funds would be cut?

Well, we agreed the funds, uh, that there would be, um, a, a funding given of, of, um, two hundred and forty million, an increase of eleven million. Um, this, uh, the strategy for RTE was set out in 2024.

Mm.

And that strategy was being pursued by RTE. Uh, progress has been made in governance and in, um, their trading arrangements, and good work has been done there. But in the area of redundancies and what RTE were setting out, uh, progress wasn't, uh, what I would call, uh, up to what they had, uh, intended to achieve. So, I think what will happen here is that, uh-

Okay, sorry, I'll just pause you just for a second, because, sorry, you, you said there that we agreed funding of, of two hundred and forty. The agreed funding in 2024 for 2027 was meant to be two hundred and sixty million. That was what was in the written agreement.

Yeah, but as part of the ag- the budget for 2027, uh, it was agreed RTE would get an additional eleven million, and that was two hundred and forty million.

Yeah, but what they were meant to be getting-

And I think there's more-

... according to the written agreement signed in 2024, was two hundred and sixty million. So it is a twenty million euro-

And that, that's-

... cut from what was agreed between government and RTE in a written agreement in 2024. Do we all agree that that's the case?

Yes. And also, when you have a written agreement, you also have this, this, more than just the funding. There's also the performance of what you will do, uh, for that funding. And obviously, uh, targets weren't being met, so the funding had to be addressed. And I do believe that, um, what will happen here is that RTE and, uh, the minister will, uh, see how progress has gone over the next number of months, and I'm sure further engagement will take place. It is important to say that-

Okay. And I'll, I'll stop you there for a second as well-

This, this is, this-

... because you're saying targets haven't been met, so can we just talk about that a little bit, if you don't mind? Uh, Kevin Bacher saying yesterday that the leadership team and himself have delivered what he said were extensive reforms since he took up his role, including the implementation about, of about ninety percent for the recommendations of the EAC report. Um, and also that almost one hundred people have exited from the organization, despite what he said was the late approval of the voluntary