The Taoiseach has said changes need to be made at RTE but he hoped people continued to pay their TV license fee.
Leo Varadkar trust in RTÉ cannot be restored without change within the national broadcaster.
He said: “I understand that the new Director General Kevin Bakhurst is going to announce changes to the organisation on Monday, the way the management is structured and issues around conflicts of interest.”
Mr Bakhurst takes up his new role on Monday.
“I am very reassured in what he has said to Government and it’s important that he be allowed to set out those plans on Monday and to talk to staff first and to inform the wider nation about those changes and he’s going to make them quickly,” Mr Varadkar said.
On the TV licence issue, the Taoiseach said he hopes people continue to pay the TV licence but he agreed it is an outdated model and that it needs to change.
He said it currently funds so much valuable broadcasting, be it news or sport, drama, children’s TV or the RTÉ archives, and that is the value of it.
However, Mr Varadkar said it does need to be overhauled and described it as a really old fashioned way of collecting revenue based on ownership of a TV device which many do not have anymore and almost all the money goes to RTÉ although there are many others involved in broadcasting outside public service broadcasting.
“So I think reform of the TV licence is long overdue and I want that to happen during this Government,” he said.
“I can see the political temptation to put it off for another government or another Dáil, but I do not want to do that, and I want to make sure we have a new system up and running during the lifetime of this Government,” he said.
