Offering existing RTÉ programmes "out to tender" to outside production companies "does not enhance the cultural life of this nation", a Dáil committee has heard.Co-chair of the RTÉ Trade Union Group Trevor Keegan was among representatives from trade unions at the broadcaster, including the National Union of Journalists, SIPTU, Connect and Unite, who appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Communication and Media.The committee is scrutinising the Revised General Scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill.The potential impact on RTÉ staff from a provision in the bill, which would require the broadcaster to spend a quarter of its annual public funding on programming commissioned from the independent sector, was a central theme in the discussions.Mr Keegan said that while many independent production companies make "great television and radio", apart from a small number of larger firms, the content is generally provided by workers on "short-term contracts with fragile protections".He added that "this is not conducive to long-term careers in TV and radio production".Mr Keegan described moving programmes such as 'The Late Late Show' and 'Fair City' to the independent sector as RTÉ "exploiting" the requirement of the act for increased production spend to "pursue its goal to dismantle and privatise" whole sections of RTÉ.He said that while there are "many laudable elements" of proposed amendments to the bill, they should not "come at the cost of breaking up the national broadcaster".Adrian Kane from SIPTU said that increased funding should support new content and employment and "not a reallocation of work already being undertaken by RTÉ workers".Mr Kane and President of Equity, the live performance and theatre trade union, Gerry O'Brien raised concerns over "buy-out contracts " by RTÉ and TG4.Secretary of the RTÉ TUG Sorcha Vaughan said that the 25% requirement is already "being quoted as a reason that things are being moved out of RTÉ".Ms Vaughan added that staff were "blue in the face" asking for consultation with management.She said that "we had this issue with religious programming" in relation to the recent announcement by RTÉ that it was sending elements of religious programming outside to a commissioning process within the independent sector.Ms Vaughan also said that her members had "had it again" with the current affairs programme Upfront with Katie Hannon when it was recently confirmed that the show was not returning in the autumn schedule.Mr Keegan told the committee that programme teams were told "late in the day" about the situation.He described as "horrific" the morale in RTÉ and Ms Vaughan said it was "awful".The Unite union also raised concerns about the provision and said that it is "often the case" that smaller independent companies will offer "short-term contracts, precarious employment arrangements, lower pay and often misclassify workers as self-employed".Seamus Dooley from the NUJ asked the committee to consider "what happens" when a public service programme which is outsourced "ceases to make enough money with the shareholder?".Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne said that concerning issues of workers being "misclassified" as self-employed that it was RTÉ rather than independent producers who were "guilty of that".He stated that public service broadcasting is not "just" going to be provided by RTÉ, and that it can be provided by TG4, and Virgin Media and "an increasingly diverse media landscape".He added it is critical to ensure that "Irish stories get told".Mr Byrne said that that can be done "very professionally by RTÉ" but not "exclusively" by RTÉ and he stated his view that he was a "little concerned" about "dismissing and challenging" what goes on in the independent sector.
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