MAIRTIN O'MAOLRUAIDH,
Sir, - It is interesting that RTÉ's main argument for a further rise in the cost of the TV licence fee , is that the quality of programming would suffer otherwise and that the losses sustained in 2001 cannot be sustained indefinitely. This view makes little financial sense when further examined.
Firstly, it should be noted that two-thirds of the enormous losses incurred recently by RTÉ are attributable to restructuring costs at the station. Surely the point of spending massive amounts of licence-payers' money in such restructuring was to return the company to profitability. If this has not been achieved, I humbly suggest that it is the management at RTÉ that needs to be looked at, rather than an increase in the licence fee.
Furthermore, even if the current abysmal trading losses were suffered again in 2002, RTÉ currently has ample resources for another year without any further subsidy from the licence-payer.
Irish broadcasting will face new and difficult challenges over the next few years and if the Irish cultural and social identity is to be catered for, the concept of public broadcasting in Ireland must be reinvented. The present structure is inefficient and outdated and has prevented the growth of the broadcasting industry.
The Forum on Broadcasting represents an ideal opportunity to overhaul the overall structure of broadcasting and it would be disappointing if all that was achieved was to tinker with the licence fee.- Yours, etc.,
MAIRTIN O'MAOLRUAIDH, Tuam Road, Galway.