The Kevin Bakhurst factor and restoring the 'Big House' that is RTÉ
RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst has a difficult task ahead.
When will RTÉ realise that it cannot continue to use voluntary redundancies as a panacea to revitalise the organization?
The dirge of departures began in 2011. That year, the organization was facing a deficit of €30m and seeking to cut a minimum of 70 jobs and save €5m a year.
In 2012, as part of its then restructuring programme, the Early Retirement and Redundancy Facility, and the Voluntary Service Facility, were initiated. This saw the broadcaster shed 350 jobs in a bid to deliver sustainable savings.
In 2017, and facing a deficit of €16m, RTÉ sought 250 voluntary redundancies. Thus, between 2011 and 2017 job cuts at RTÉ have cost approximately €70m and the exiting of 350 permanent employees.
Fast forward to 2020. Yet again, RTÉ sought 60 to 70 redundancies to cut costs by €60m. Separately 73 employees of the National Symphony Orchestra left the building to inhabit the National Concert Hall, but not before the Government assisted the move by allocating €8m in budget funding.
Alarmingly, despite public cynicism at the enormous salaries of top presenters, swinging cuts were suggested, and rejected in 2021, including almost 5% cuts in salaries of employees earning over €40,000.
But the worst was yet to come for the lower-paid RTÉ employees. When Ryan Tubridy’s previously underestimated salary was revealed, this propelled the organisation into crisis mode, including forensic public scrutiny of its finances, and a review of the RTÉ voluntary exit scheme at executive level.
Now, in 2023, with the promise of interim Government funding of €56m, 400 job cuts over four to five years are being sought, as part of a €40m redundancy scheme. Why should we believe it will be different this time? Maybe it is the Bakhurst factor?
Notwithstanding he has inherited a crumbling mausoleum, it has taken this Englishman, DG Kevin Bakhurst, less than a year to realise the value and the richness of RTÉ’s regional assets. In his New Directions for RTÉ, released on Tuesday, Bakhurst posits his 34-page vision on the future strategy for RTÉ.
He displays a welcome understanding of the efficacy of migrating much of its programming and commissioning to Galway, Limerick and the Cork studios, in particular.
This is good news indeed for Cork, whose output for RTÉ has been phenomenal. It includes the juggernaut success story, The Today Show, Nationwide, and with the commissioning acumen of Colm Crowley, Head of RTÉ Cork, other notable gems include the RTÉ One critically acclaimed primetime shows; ‘The Hunger – the story of the Irish Famine’, the Prix Europa nominated ‘The Irish Revolution’, as well as the 'Irish Civil War' broadcast in 2022.
Add other factual entertainment output hits from RTÉ One such as ‘Creedon’s Atlas of Ireland’ and many of the RTÉ lifestyle strands such as ‘Taste of Success’, all sustaining RTÉ with over 350 hours of indigenous cost-effective programming.
Bakhurst is the first DG to recognise, respect and restore regional output in his future plans for a more streamlined RTÉ. However, his aspirations of increasing to 50% the outsourcing of programming to independent production companies must come with a caveat; will it dilute RTÉ’s public service remit?
Is RTÉ in danger of becoming a Publisher Broadcaster, having little in-house productions? This is an issue that must be worrying current staff, as the context of content strategy is unclear at present.
Feeding into many of the exigencies and recommendations of the Future of Media Report of 2021, Bakhurst’s vision includes a cap on salaries of over €250,000. Mr Bakhurst is sending a loud and clear message; no one gets paid more than the DG and hubris and egos will not be tolerated.
Also welcome is his willingness to increase drama output by 50%, allied to his commitment to heavily resource the RTÉ Player and introduce an Audio App, strategies needed to effectively compete on digital platforms.
And so, with a promise of interim funding of €54m up to the end of 2024, what next for RTÉ?
First off, the current government must stop prevaricating and make a call on how to resource public service broadcasting. The Future of Media Report presented a number of options; the primary one, based on exchequer funding, was rejected.
I would strongly endorse the Finnish model, which is a fair and equitable Broadcasting Tax, with legal statutes in place to ensure no government interference.
With a scenario and a population similar to Ireland, Finland rid itself of its licence fee in 2013, due primarily to high levels of fee evasion, and instead introduced a public broadcasting tax. Those earning less than €14,000 do not pay; those who do pay it, are taxed at 2.5% of their income, with no one paying more than €163.
At present, just over 73% of Finns are happy with this model and perhaps this route should be taken in Ireland.
Moreover, an additional stream of income for public service broadcasting could include the introduction of a Digital Services Tax. The EU Commission has sanctioned this initiative and has suggested a 3% levy on the streaming companies and Tech giants who gain millions in revenue from Irish and EU consumers.
This money could be used to resource both the TV and Screen industry in the development of indigenous programming. To date, and in the absence of any uniform EU agreement, Italy, France and Spain, have introduced a 3% tax on revenues deemed to have been generated in the host country, by large search-engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces. Why is Ireland delaying on this front?
Regarding the sale of Montrose, this should not be even considered as an income stream. It is the childhood home of Annie Jameson, of the famous distillery family, and mother of the inventor of wireless communications, Guglielmo Marconi. Annie grew up in Montrose House on the grounds of RTÉ and its cultural value is more significant than an undervalued land sale, providing a temporary solution to RTÉ’s fiscal woes.
Undoubtedly, Kevin Bakhurst has a difficult task ahead; RTÉ has been Dublin-centric for so long that its status as a Public Service Broadcaster has largely been confined to its activities within the grandeur of Montrose.
Its current status is not unlike that depicted by the writer Elizabeth Bowen in her novel, The Last September. She reflects on the isolation she felt was part of the Anglo-Irish experience, represented in the downfall of the ‘Big House’: It was "pressing down low in apprehension, hiding its face, as though it had a vision of where it was.”
This fate must not befall RTÉ. It must not become isolated from its audiences; it must instead engage in more cost-effective regional programming; its staff must not cower in apprehension, fearful that voluntary redundancies ultimately become mandatory.
While Kevin Bakhurst has manifested signs of incipient vision, it must be even more creative, and not one which includes the constant shedding of staff like scabrous skin.
- DR FINOLA DOYLE O’NEILL IS A BROADCAST AND LEGAL HISTORIAN AT THE SCHOOL OF HISTORY, UCC
