More than 100,000 fewer people have paid their RTÉ TV licence fee so far this year than in the same period in 2022, prior to the payments scandal.However, director general Kevin Bakhurst has insisted that increasing numbers of viewers are paying the fee, and that the broadcaster will be ahead of its own estimates by the end of the year.The fallout from undeclared payments to Ryan Tubridy, followed by a series of revelations about lavish hospitality, severance payments to executives and sponsorship deals for presenters, led to a massive slump in licence fee payments from late June onwards last year.RTÉ’s licence-fee income last year was down €17.3m compared to 2022, its recently published annual report shows.A total of 584,189 people had paid their licence fee as of the end of September, according to official figures published on a weekly basis by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.This compares with 619,850 last year at the same time, and 693,299 in the same period in 2022.The biggest slump came in July 2023, at the height of the payments scandal, when just 53,882 licence fees were paid, compared with 76,769 the previous year.In July 2024, licence fee payments had partially recovered, with 66,768 purchased.Mr Bakhurst confirmed on Sean O’Rourke’s Insights podcast that licence fee payments dropped 40% last year, but added that this year payment levels were above those of 2023 in July, August and September.He said: “The last several months it’s been significantly up on last year; I think July and August particularly were good months, and September was up on last year.“We projected that licence-fee payments would be down around 30% this year, and we’re doing much better than that.”He said part of this was due to confirmation that the licence fee is here to stay, and part because RTÉ was showing the audience that ‘we are getting our act together”.“We’ve had a really good summer as an organisation in terms of coverage of the Olympics and the Euros, and some really important high-profile investigations,” he said.“You win back trust by showing that you are running the organisation responsibly, by showing that you are being much more transparent, answering questions and by demonstrating to the audience that there is real value there.”After returning to Ireland to be director general in July last year, the former BBC producer and ex-RTÉ head of news and current affairs said that nothing he had experienced before in his career had prepared him for the intensity of the payments scandal, and the Oireachtas committee hearings in particular.“Obviously everybody saw it, it was a testing time, and the committees asked a lot of questions that they were right to ask, and I think they have driven quite a lot of change by doing that,” he said.“I also feel that they were unfair on a few issues and unfair on a few colleagues, to be honest with you.“I mean, I don’t really care about me, and what they say about me – that’s my job.''But there were some colleagues who appeared there who were treated by some colleagues a little unfairly, and I think people recognise that.”He said he had been shocked when Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin said he would rather spend his licence-fee money on a round of drinks in the local pub.“I just thought, the licence fee is the law, and you are a representative of your country,” he recalled.“You have to pick your battles when you are in committee, but I was surprised to hear that and thought it wasn’t helpful.”
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