A CLIP OF Media Minister Catherine Martin telling a journalist that she does not think it is acceptable that she is “screamed at” was shared widely on social media yesterday.
The interaction happened during a tetchy press event about the Government’s approval of €725 million in funding for RTÉ over the next three years.
The exchange between Martin, the Irish Independent’s Ireland editor Fionnán Sheahan and a deputy government press secretary happened at the end of a 40-minute press conference where journalists asked questions about the new funding plan for the state broadcaster.
The back-and-forth in the clip shared on social media was only part of the story, and to many people it was unclear what exactly the argument was about.
Earlier on in the press conference, Sheahan got into a heated exchange when he asked for specific figures: he wanted to know the level of funding for RTÉ each year, and a breakdown of how much would be spent and on what.
He asked how much the RTÉ top-up would amount to each year, what the projected licence fee collection from An Post would be, and what contribution the Department of Social Protection would make for free licences each year.
The minister ran through the figures and gave breakdown for 2025.
Sheahan then asked for the figures for the three years, stating “it is not complicated”.
As it’s beginning to attract some coverage: here’s the last four-and-a-half minutes, unedited, of Catherine Martin’s press conference today about the future funding of RTÉ. pic.twitter.com/EqN3r7wMNK
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) July 24, 2024
The minister explained that she couldn’t give licence fee projections for the subsequent years, stating: “I have to wait to see what the TV licence revenue will be [in order] to predict for next year. I’m hoping that it will improve”.
Sheahan interjected and claimed the Government was giving a blank cheque to RTÉ after committing €240 million to the broadcaster for 2026 and €260 million for 2027 regardless, and that the minister was unable to say how that money would be broken down.
Sheahan put it to Martin that she had no idea where the money would come from. The back-and-forth had gone on for about three minutes at that stage, before deputy government press secretary Aiden Corkery said he had to move on to other questions.
Sheahan then interjected loudly.
“Sorry, sorry now, hold on. This is taxpayers’ money. I’m trying to get the exact figures. You’re making a projection for 2025, but you are not for 2026 and you’re not for 2027. Is that correct?” he asked, putting his question to the minister directly.
Martin said that she hoped the TV licence fee would improve when the new system was rolled out.
“But you’re guaranteeing RTÉ exact amounts,” Sheahan said, adding that the government did not know whether the RTÉ top-up would be higher or lower in the years ahead because it did not know the level of future licence fee payments (and therefore how much funding would have to be made up).
His questions continued, and the exchange reached the five-minute mark when Corkery, the deputy government press secretary, again intervened and said he would have to move on to allow other reporters to ask questions.
“I have sat here for a year waiting for these answers I am going to get them today,” Sheahan responded.
Corkery told him that “there are many of your colleagues here today who have a question to ask”.
Sheahan then asked the minister whether there was a demand for a similar level of funding for the final two years of the RTÉ five-year strategy. She replied that, after year three, a review would be carried out to see what sort of funding RTÉ would need.
Sheahan claimed that Martin must know what the level would be, but was choosing not to say.
The minister responded and said she knew the amount that RTÉ were looking for, but that Coimisiún na Meán was assessing it to see whether it would be accurate and that the commission would make a recommendation to the Government about it at a later date.
After nearly six minutes, questions eventually moved on to other reporters at the press conference.
Those other journalists asked questions on what percentage of the funding for next year would go on redundancy payments. However, the minister said she could not release the information until the Department of Public Expenditure confirmed the figures.
The funding to RTÉ is contingent on a number of reforms promised by the broadcaster, which includes 400 redundancies.
The first 40 redundancies are to be paid for from the sale of land on the Montrose site in 2017, said the minister, with the remaining 360 voluntary redundancies being paid for from RTÉ funding.
Virgin Media’s Claire Brock was given the last question from government press secretary Corkery, who afterwards, said it was time to wrap up the press conference.
It is understood the minister had a number of radio station slots in the mix for after the press conference, including programmes on Today FM and Newstalk, though the minister’s office had given no confirmation.
She was also due to do pieces to camera for TG4 and Virgin Media News at the end of the press conference.
The minister did not get to make those appearances due to time constraints after the weekly meeting of Cabinet ministers ran over its expected time (before the press conference), leading the press conference itself to being limited in its time.
It is a regular occurrence that other commitments of a minister, such as TV and radio appearances, cut short the number of questions that reporters are able to ask in person at press conferences.
The issue has been raised with officials and other ministers on previous occasions.
After just shy of 40 minutes, the Irish Examiner’s Political editor Elaine Loughlin attempted to ask Martin another question. However, Corkery told reporters: “OK… actually, guys, we have to finish.”
Sheahan then interrupted and addressed Corkery, saying with a raised voice: “Let her ask the question. You came here 45 minutes late, let her ask the question. Stop shutting down media scrutiny here, because you’re at it again.”
"SHOW SOME MANNERS": Fiery exchanges at Minister Catherine Martin's press conference on RTÉ, as a senior reporter accuses the Minister's team of persistently avoiding press scrutiny. pic.twitter.com/upMNPrJjsh
— gript (@griptmedia) July 24, 2024
He then addressed Catherine Martin, saying: “Every press conference we attend with you, your officials are at this all the time. Take Elaine’s question.”
Corkery then said “excuse me”, before Sheahan also told him to allow Loughlin to ask a question and accused the press secretary and other officials of “doing this all the time”.
“Fionnán, please don’t shout,” Corkery responded. “You’re constantly at it,” Sheahan then said in turn.
The press secretary then invited Loughlin to ask her question, saying: “This will be the final question.”
“Show some manners,” Sheahan interjected.
Loughlin then asked the Minister whether she knew that the public funding allocated to RTÉ would not all be spent on redundancies over the next three years.
“That’s what we’re working out in this scheme right now. I can’t reveal until it’s given sanction, Elaine,” Martin said.
The Minister was asked again about how she could be confident that the money would be “spent correctly to overhaul RTÉ” and not on redundancies, and said: “Because it’s all laid out in the strategy that it’s not all going on redundancies in year one.”
“They’re implementing the strategy and they have set out what they want to do over that five years,” she added.
After another question on whether she could put a percentage on how much will be spent on redundancies, the Minister said she couldn’t.
At this point, she said she did not think it was acceptable that she was “screamed” at.
Interrupting, Sheahan said: “Well I don’t understand why it’s acceptable that your officials keep shutting down questions to you every time we have a press conference here.”
He highlighted other instances such as the post-Budget press conference and another briefing that happened three months ago, claiming that officials “were taking away the microphones” at those events.
“May I speak?” The Minister asked, with Sheahan saying “please do”.
“I have never raised my voice,” Martin says.
“I never do it, and I always say I will stay here for three hours if you wish, Fionnán. If Cabinet runs overtime, I can’t help that; if it’s delayed. I can’t. That’s out of my control, and we were discussing in detail the RTÉ plan.
At the end of a heated press conference, Minister for Media Catherine Martin asked the Irish Independent's Fionnan Sheahan that “she be treated with respect” and that she “wouldn’t be screamed at” | https://t.co/yRhIjAgEZ5 pic.twitter.com/KDXarSJK3K
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 24, 2024
“But I would ask that I be treated with respect, that I wouldn’t be screamed at. I think it’s the very least that a public rep that is sitting up here deserves.
“And no other member of the media does it to me. No matter how frustrated anyone else gets or comes back and asks me questions, they never scream at me and they never scream at the person who is trying to manage it. I just don’t think that’s right, and I don’t think it’s going to encourage more people to enter politics either.
“I just think that needs to be said, because I’ve had a year of it and Fionnán, every time you’re here, you scream at me at some stage or you scream at the person (managing the press conference).”
Martin went on to say that she thought “long and hard” about mentioning this issue, and that she would probably be “a bigger target” for bringing it up.
“But I think it needs to be said that the behaviour is not acceptable,” she added.
Loughlin then told Martin that she would not have sought to ask another question if Sheahan had not shouted, and said other doorsteps with politicians and press conferences had been shut down by officials, which meant members of the media were not able to ask a question.
“We don’t want to shout, it’s not something we do or we want to do to press advisors,” she said.
“But unfortunately, I think Fionnán’s way of doing business is the only way in which we get all of the questions we want to get.”
Martin responded: “Well then we all need to think about that because no one should be screaming.”
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