Ryanair deputy chief says RTÉ has left-wing agenda

RYANAIR DEPUTY chief executive Michael Cawley has accused RTÉ of peddling a “left-wing, Liberty Hall agenda”.

Mr Cawley said Ryanair had “pointedly” given some major announcements to Newstalk radio rather than RTÉ.

At the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland annual conference yesterday, Mr Cawley said he believed that RTÉ had a bias towards the public sector because it was part of the public sector and that is reflected in the difference in its coverage of Ryanair and the former State airline Aer Lingus.

Mr Cawley said that when his father retired as a garda in 1965, his pension was worth £48 a month.

After he died, his mother was entitled to half the pension and by the time she died in 2000, it was £480 because it had been continually adjusted for inflation.

“A private sector worker, if they are lucky, will get a flat pension. My mother received the equivalent of 20 times my father’s pension. Actuarially, that is impossible to value.

“Has anybody in RTÉ looked at that particular agenda and said the marches a couple of weeks ago were wrong? I would suggest that all those propositions in the public sector have never been explored at all.”

RTÉ’s head of public affairs Peter Feeney said that any member of the public who felt the organisation was not impartial or objective should go to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.

“In response to Michael Cawley’s views, RTÉ wishes to assure the public that the red flag is not flying over the Montrose Soviet and that RTÉ continues to be managed in a manner that recognises the important role that trade unions play in modern society.”

IBI chairman Willie O’Reilly said it was important for the Government to appoint a referendum commission as early as possible in advance of the second Lisbon referendum.

Mr O’Reilly has been a persistent critic of the outcome of the Coughlan judgment which gives both sides of a referendum equal treatment, saying that it gives disproportionate airtime to small fringe groups and amounts to a “crank’s charter”.

“For broadcasting to be balanced and for arguments to be probed, it is essential that the Government and the Broadcasting [Complaints] Commission reflect on the effectiveness of the existing guidelines. It is essential that they do urgently.”

Mr O’Reilly said he expected revenues in the independent radio sector, which represents 33 national and local radio stations, to decline by between 10 per cent and 12 per cent this year and the sector is performing better than either the print or television media.

“Radio is doing okay. Things are stable, but it will depend on the length and depth of the recession.”

President Mary McAleese told the conference that independent radio began in 1988 during the last protracted recession and would survive the current economic downturn.

“The world has grown very competitive.

“It is a struggle on a daily basis for financial viability especially when advertising revenues have been hit so hard and yet when you look back to 21 years ago, there was no hint or a rumour of the Celtic Tiger.

“As you face into the next 21 years,” President McAleese added, “the omens aren’t great but, on the other hand, you now have a spectrum of success, of growth and managing difficulties.”