RTÉ DIRECTOR GENERAL Kevin Bakhurst has rejected claims that RTÉ is being “rewarded” with the €725 million public funding package that Government approved yesterday.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio One this morning, Bakhurst said that since the payments scandal last summer, 13 months ago, the leadership at the broadcaster has made substantial changes to ensure a similar situation would not happen again.

The RTÉ boss said that, with the mix of TV licence fee and direct exchequer funding, audiences will see improvements and investments made into the RTÉ Player and at the campuses of the station.

Additionally, Bakhurst argued that the funding for productions which are made in partnership with independent studios will help to sustain and keep the sector afloat.

Yesterday, Cabinet signed off on a €725 million funding package for the public broadcaster which will be paid out over the next three years. 

The station is to receive €225 million next year from TV licence fee revenue and direct Exchequer funding combined. In 2026, the funding will rise to €240 million, rising to €260 million in 2027. 

Government also agreed to the provision of increased funding for the Broadcasting and Media Funds, with a further €4 million in Exchequer support delivering an increased allocation of €22.2 million for the wider sector in 2025. 

Virgin Media yesterday said that the funding was “reward for inefficiency and all-round bad practice” and added that the package “further distorts the market”.

Bakhurst today rejected those claims, and said that the new leadership team – who were appointed months into the scandal – have developed a series of new governance structures and new procedures to ensure control.

“We have gone out, we have answered all the questions about it. We’ve been to many Oireachtas committees to answer those questions. We’ve set out how this cannot happen again,” Bakhurst said.

“We set out a detailed response to the Government’s expert reports about how this organisation will be more transparent and more accountable,” he added.

RTÉ has spent hundreds-of-thousands of Euro in response to the controversy, developing new strategies and procedures in order to convince Government that the leadership team can be, and will be, in control.

Additionally, Media Minister Catherine Martin took it a step further and put the broadcaster’s finances under the control of the Comptroller and Auditor General earlier this year.

But Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin, the managing director of Virgin Media Television, said she believes that the guaranteed funding will only enshrine RTÉ as the most dominant public service broadcaster in the industry. 

She cautioned that Virgin Media Television “has no alternative but to review all options including our position with regards to our existing Public Service Broadcasting commitments”.

Ní Chaoindealbháin added that the funding announcement disregards Virgin Media’s “25-year record of delivering extensive Public Service content and the 93% of the population that we reach on an annual basis”.

Responding the claims, the RTÉ boss said the funding was an award but for setting out a strategy and being answerable to the previous faults of the station. “If you believe in public service broadcasting, and public service media, it needs to be funded,” he said.

“If you believe as a society, or as a government, that public service media plays a role in society – whatever it is, whether it’s providing reliable news, providing investigations, providing entertainment for audiences – that has to be funded properly so we can deliver properly for audiences,” he added.