The government will insist that RTE cuts costs, implements redundancies and prepares detailed business plans before considering a request from the station to accelerate the next licence-fee increase.
The RTE Authority announced yesterday that it would lobby the Government to bring forward the next phase of the increase, in an effort to avert a financial crisis at the station.
The authority said it would make a submission to the Government in response to the consultants' report, whose findings led to the rejection of the station's proposed £50 licence-fee increase.
The Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, last week announced a £14.50 interim increase. She said the Government would consider a further increase from April 1st, 2003, subject to RTE meeting certain conditions.
A spokesman for Ms de Valera said: "If these are met, and the Minister hopes that will be sooner rather than later, this can be reconsidered by the Cabinet. But all the conditions must be met: they must get their house in order."
However, in a statement after a meeting yesterday, the authority said its submission would "enable the Minister and the Government to bring forward substantially the timing of the next phase of the licence-fee increase".
The meeting discussed the consultants' report, prepared by PriceWaterhouseCooper, and the subsequent decision to award the station less than a third of the increase it had sought.
In its submission to the Government, the authority is expected to dispute some of the report's conclusions, which found that the station was behind schedule in its cost-cutting measures.
The station will also seek to persuade the Minister that it can deliver on these targets, and can produce a convincing business plan based on market research to allow it develop indigenous programming and establish new digital channels.