RTÉ, the most influential media outlet in the State, was tucking into humble pie. 

For politicians, who have approached the Donnybrook campus with trepidation, wondering whether they will come through a broadcast interview intact, this was one to savour. 

For once, the high moral ground could be taken. 

Who’s having to answer the tough questions now?

The nuances were smothered. 

For instance, the scandal enveloping RTÉ has nothing to do with journalism or a perceived lack of balance or any of the usual whinges about the media, which are writ large with the national broadcaster simply because of its reach. 

In fact, the reporting of the story by RTÉ has been of a high standard and professional. 

Still, it’s the brand that often sticks in the craw and no tears will be shed, no breasts beaten, over the station’s current misfortune in Leinster House.

Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan at the weekend told RTÉ just how it’s going to be, and no doubt it hurt him more than it could ever hurt the national broadcaster. 

The station is facing “serious hits” to its income as a result of all the payments controversy, he said. 

Then he suggested that there would be a decrease in money raised from the TV licence fee amid public anger. 

It was unclear whether he was predicting that more people would sate their anger by refusing the pay the licence fee, or whether something else would be at work. 

He also predicted that the commercial revenues would be hit.

“So the Government is going to have to take up the tab and Joe and Mary Public are going to wind up paying for this because it is a fundamental part of our democracy,” he said. 

It’s difficult to discern whether the minister is lecturing to, sympathising with, or feeling anger for Joe and Mary Public on this point, but the question of funding for RTÉ has just got more desperate. 

And this is the question that politicians are going to have to address sooner rather than later.

On Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested it might be later. 

A technical group which has been reviewing the licence fee has been suspended in light of the current controversies. 

“To do an in-depth and thorough governance review will take a few months,” he said. 

“We’d rather do it right than do it quickly and in the meantime, we’re suspending our work on the reform of the TV licence.” 

This group has been at work since last year and it is unclear why it could not complete its work independent of any investigation into the Ryan Tubridy payments issue.

The funding model for RTÉ as a public service broadcaster is based on a combination of the licence fee and commercial revenue. 

In 2021, the most recent financial year that results have been filed for, RTÉ received an income of €344m, of which €196m came from the licence fee and €148 from commercial activity. 

Tens of millions, reputedly up to €50m, are lost every year through households not paying the fee. 

In addition, around €12m goes to the Post Office network for collecting the fee. 

Currently, the toll stands at €160 per annum and has not been increased since 2008.

The funding model is completely outdated. It was devised at a time when televisions were as ubiquitous in a household as the kettle. 

That is no longer the case. Younger people simply don’t watch TV and not-so-young people might dip in now and again. 

There is understandable resentment at having to fork out for a licence fee at a time of instant access to a global communications network. 

In such a milieu, the concept of public service broadcasting requires greater analysis, particularly in terms of its role in a democracy.

In 2014, plans were at an advanced stage within government to replace the licence fee with a “household broadcasting charge” which would apply to all homes and cover the use of digital platforms as well as television. 

The political earthquake that resulted from resistance to water charges at that time illustrated that the public was particularly opposed to new-fangled tolls, whatever about forking out more on existing taxes or charges. 

Reform of the system was once again long-fingered.

Last year, the commission on the future of media issued a wide-ranging report on how to address the challenges facing the media as a whole. 

It delivered 49 recommendations, 48 of which the Government accepted. 

The odd one out was the proposal to scrap the licence fee in favour of direct funding from the exchequer. 

“Over 80% of people pay their licence and nobody is going to cut off that source of funding,” one government source told the Irish Examiner’s Elaine Loughlin at the time.

Officially, the reasoning from the Government to retain the fee had a weightier basis, claiming that direct funding might compromise RTÉ’s ability to hold the Government of the day to account and thus impinge on a democratic principle. 

The solution arrived at was to go down the tried and trusty route of setting up a review group to examine the issue. 

And this week, on foot of an entirely unrelated issue at RTÉ, the work of that review group, heading into its second year, was suspended.

So while everybody agrees the licence fee system is broken, there is reluctance in the Government to find a way of fixing it that will not involve money being supplied directly from the exchequer. 

Speaking to the Irish Examiner on the appointment of new director general Kevin Bakhurst last April, Dublin City University media academic Roddy Flynn said a solution shouldn’t be that difficult. 

He suggested that funding could be index linked and provided through an independent body such as the commission which compiled last year’s report. 

Instead, it would appear that the solution is to apply the matter to the long finger, which usually runs until after the next general election. 

Now, with the country agog at the latest revelations to emerge from the broadcaster, the Government can be fortified that it has selected the best outcome, which in reality is no outcome at all.