Mr Ray Burke, the former minister for communications, issued a directive in 1989 stating that Century Radio should pay one-quarter of an agreed fixed charge to RTE for using the national radio transmission network, the Flood tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr Burke's directive said Century Radio was to pay RTE over £150,000 despite a figure of £614,000 agreed with RTE. There was no documentation to suggest how the decreased figures had been decided, according to Mr Pat Hanratty SC. "We don't know where they came from, unless they came from the minister himself," he said.
Mr Burke had said in a letter to the IRTC in February 1989 that in the Irish context the charges of £692,000 proposed by RTE were not unreasonable. Officials in the department had advised the minister that Century Radio had underestimated the costs in its proposal to pay £375,000.
Mr Hanratty said the directive "sent shock waves through the organisation". RTE had originally fixed a charge of £692,000 for use of the network but had changed this figure to £614,000 when asked by the minister to reduce it. After the directive, RTE said it did not accept that there was no subsidy in the charges.
Mr Hanratty said RTE was left with a "no-win situation". Like other semi-State bodies, it had to be economically viable. On the other hand, the public would not favour it if it were seen to obstruct attempts to provide an alternative national radio station.