Madam, – One point made by Kevin Dawson, RTÉ’s head of corporate communications, (Media Marketing, July 9th) entitled should not go unchallenged.
Dawson claimed that there was “little comment” on the unfairness of the dual funding model at RTE – where licence fee goes to pay for radio, performance group public services and television – “until recently”. Not so.
For years, TV3 canvassed government ministers responsible for communications policy and even went as far as taking a legal case to Europe on the basis they felt that RTÉ enjoyed an unfair advantage in the Irish television market. At one point, the then minister for communications, Ray Burke, tried to penalise RTÉ and support the backers of Century Radio with his mission statement to “level the playing field” in Irish broadcasting. – Yours, etc,