Latest news with #MicheálCarrigy
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
TV licence fee revenue down €58m after RTÉ payment scandal, new figures show
TV licence fee revenue has decreased by over €58m in the last two years. New figures confirm that revenue from the licence plummeted following a range of financial scandals engulfing RTÉ in the summer of 2023, which sparked a wave of non-payments. Before the scandals, between July 2021 and June 2023, some 1.9m people paid the €160 annual fee, resulting in revenue of €306m. This included 1.7m people who renewed the licence, as well as 243,179 first-time purchases. However, figures for the two-year period after the RTÉ controversies, between July 2023 and June 2025, reveal revenue decreased by €58.4m compared to the previous two years. Some 1.55m people paid the licence fee, a decrease of more than 365,0000 people. This resulted in revenue of €247.6m, a decrease of 19% compared to the preceding two years. There has, however, been a slight increase in the number of people paying the fee since the Government announced a new funding arrangement for RTÉ on July 24, 2024. Between July 2022 and June 2023, some 947,999 paid the €160 fee. This fell to 761,762 payments between July 2023 and June 2024. In the last 12 months, the number of licences bought increased to 785,595. However, this is still 17% below the pre-scandal levels. This year to date, some 376,140 people have paid the licence fee. Figures for the two-year period after the RTÉ controversies, between July 2023 and June 2025, reveal revenue decreased by €58.4m compared to the previous two years. Picture: Colin Keegan The figures were provided to Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy following a parliamentary question to media minister Patrick O'Donovan. The RTÉ scandals included revelations that former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy was paid €345,000 over six years that had not been declared by RTÉ in its annual declaration of top-paid stars' salaries. It later transpired that money had been paid to Mr Tubridy as part of a three-year 'side deal' that would see Renault pay him €75,000 per year. They pulled out of the agreement after the first year, with RTÉ paying the remaining €150,000. Subsequent Oireachtas committee hearings heard of extravagant spending at RTÉ, including €5,000 on flip-flops, memberships to swanky London clubs, and a failed musical based on The Late Late Toy Show. Mr O'Donovan has reconvened the interdepartmental technical working group (TWG) on the TV licence to 'examine potential enhancements to the television licence'. 'I will consider the report of the TWG when I receive it and decide the next steps,' he added. It was reported last month that the number of people being taken to court or prosecuted for non-payment had dropped. In 2022, An Post made 13,709 summons applications for non-payment and pursued 7,263 court cases. There were 13,198 summons applications and 6,555 court cases in 2023. However, last year this fell to 12,229 summons applications and 5,392 court cases. The Government announced plans last year to provide RTÉ with €725m in funding over three years. Media minister Catherine Martin confirmed that the TV licence would remain in place, with the State providing top-up funding to ensure that RTÉ had a certain amount of ring-fenced funding each year.
Sunday World
28-06-2025
- Sunday World
Female garda has lucky escape as man ‘pulls knife' on officers
The man, who is originally from Dublin, was later charged in connection to the incident and appeared at a special court sitting in Longford the following day. A female garda had a lucky escape when she was 'shouldered to the ground' and assaulted in a midlands village after a man officers had been searching for in connection to a criminal damage investigation 'pulled a knife' on gardaí. The man, who is in his mid 40s, had been wanted by detectives over damage that had been caused to a car in the Market Square area of Longford town last Friday (June 20). Those investigations had resulted in the speedy identification of the suspect. Garda stock image. News in 90 Seconds - June 28th When officers called to the property in Ballinalee the following day, a struggle broke out as gardaí attempted to execute the man's arrest. It was during those attempts that a female and well-respected garda was allegedly assaulted. 'He was later identified and on the Saturday they went to arrest him,' a source told the Irish Independent. 'He pulled a knife on the gardai (and) was arrested.' Sources have confirmed the well-regarded officer was shouldered, causing her to fall to the ground where she is believed to have also sustained one or possibly more kicks into the body. It's understood the knife involved was a 12 inch carving knife, which sources say was produced inside the property and not outside when the man was ultimately led away by arresting gardaí. "He produced the knife and closed the door on them (officers) who managed to then handcuff and arrest him. While the knife was produced, the man didn't attack the two officers with it.' The man, who is originally from Dublin, was later charged in connection to the incident and appeared at a special court sitting in Longford the following day. The Irish Independent understands the young officer did not sustain any serious injuries and has remained on active frontline duty since. He was subsequently refused bail and remanded in custody ahead of a further, scheduled court appearance on July 8. Details surrounding the incident comes amid a heightened and renewed spotlight on the dangers facing rank and file gardaí. Earlier this week, a garda suffered significant wounds to his fingers when he was stabbed in the hand after officers responded to a break-in at a pub in Blanchardstown on Wednesday evening. That incident, together with its Longford equivalent has led to calls for greater resources to be deployed in order to assist already over-stretched gardaí on a daily basis. "It's down to numbers and manpower, this is what it's about,' said Roscommon-Longford Garda Representative Association representative Keith Maher. 'There's not enough members and that's compromsing safety and you have to do the same amount (of work) with less people.' Longford-Westmeath Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy, meanwhile, described the latest episodes involving assaults on gardaí as 'totally unacceptable' and ones which required a strong hand from the judiciary. 'Gardaí do an excellent job and anything like this is totally unacceptable,' he said. "The strongest rigours of the law needs to be thrown at anyone in any attempts to assault gardaí carrying out their duty on behalf of citizens.'
RTÉ News
25-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Postmasters warn of closure of 40% of post offices without increased funding
Postmasters have warned that 40% of post offices could close unless Government funding for the network is increased. The Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) is calling for a 50% increase in state funding to €15 million per year over five years to secure the network. Currently, the network receives €10 million annually but the Irish Postmasters Union says this is not adequate. The IPU's general secretary Sandra Tormey told the Oireachtas Communications Committee that 108 postmasters are earning less than the minimum wage when costs are taken out. She said a poll of members revealed the scale of the problem. "If the Government funding stays the same at €10 million, 40% will have to close. We've had to absorb 30% minimum wage increases and 15% inflation. "We cannot increase our prices to make our businesses viable. We cannot avail of any supports that Government gives because we are deemed services and not retailers." She said that if funding was increased to €15 million, 70% of members could envisage a viable future. The Union says that this funding would help expand access to in-person public services and support identity verification and fraud prevention for departments and agencies. Fine Gael Micheál Carrigy said his family post office in Ballinalee in Co Longford would close if funding was not increased. "I would be one of the 40% who would go if funding wasn't in place, the ten million has worked. As a postmaster, we need that €15 million, not just me, but hundreds of other offices and communities across the country." An Post chief executive David McRedmond said the semi-state was the conduit between the IPU and the Government but he added that it supported the IPU getting an increase in funding. He pointed to a 32% decline in transactions since 2019.
Irish Independent
05-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Carrigy says N4 upgrade must be delivered over the next decade as Longford's economic renaissance gathers pace
That's the view of Longford based Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy as hopes continue to grow surrounding the financial well-being of his native county. Those aspirations were given a sizable boost last week when secondary school meal provider Food Village announced the creation of 200 jobs with the opening of a state-of-the-art food service site at the town's Mastertech Business Park. That announcement followed hot on the heels of confirmation some two weeks earlier from IDA bosses over how it was closing in on plans to develop a purpose built factory aimed at enticing a large-scale multinational giant to the town. Details surrounding both those breakthroughs have, according to Mr Carrigy, underlined the importance of advancing one of the region's most critical infrastructural assets. 'It is a key piece of infrastructure for the economic development of our county into the future for the next generation, that we have that direct access to our capital city and airport and that we shorten journey times between the capital and Longford,' he told the Irish Independent. 'There is great people in Longford, it's a great county and we have a great town.' Hopes surrounding the carriageway's long-awaited upgrade were given a welcome tonic in February when a preferred route was selected following years of funding issues and long-standing delays. Mr Carrigy said it was imperative the long-awaited project was delivered over the next decade in order to foster and further strengthen the county's upward economic trajectory. 'We have brilliant business people here who have and are putting in long hours to build up their companies and contracts with other companies that are operating at the highest level,' he added. 'That's why other, larger multinationals have looked at other businesses we have here as we have a very good, skilled workforce and we want to make sure we have the necessary infrastructure in place to continue to attract investment into our county which makes it is so important the N4 project is delivered over the next 10 years.'
Extra.ie
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Extra.ie
‘Social media firms should face Oireachtas over spread of lies and fear' says TD
Social media companies should 'most definitely' be brought before the Oireachtas Media Committee to discuss how they deal with disinformation on foot of claims made online in the wake of the shooting in Carlow over the weekend, a TD has said. When the incident became public, some far-right actors pushed false information that the incident was carried out by a foreign national. Some social media users described the incident as a mass shooting with multiple victims wounded. However, the gardaí moved quickly to clarify that the shooter was Evan Fitzgerald, 22, of Portrushen, Kiltegan, Co. Wicklow, who was a white Irish male. The clarification of his ethnicity was made in a bid to stop disinformation from spreading about the identity of the shooter. Emergency services near the scene at Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Carlow. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire Gardaí confirmed Fitzgerald was alone when he walked through the shopping centre and discharged the firearm into the air a number of times. Fitzgerald ultimately died from a self-inflicted gunshot. Some web users claimed Ireland may have a civil war 'very soon' on the foot of the incident, with others talking about a 'cover-up' of the incident. Other accounts suggested the shooter was 'not white' and 'probably' an illegal immigrant. None of these allegations was true. Micheál Carrigy, a Fine Gael TD who sits on the Oireachtas Media Committee, said: 'They [social media firms] should be quicker in taking down this information that's on the platforms. Other platforms are being used to spread disinformation and spread disquiet and untruths.' The deputy said this is 'something that can't be done through mainstream media because you have to publish what is correct', adding: 'Their platforms are being used to spread fear in communities and false information. Senator Micheál Carrigy. Pic: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos 'So they need to be quicker in taking down what has been identified as incorrect information and spreading hatred within communities.' He said he would 'most definitely' like to see companies such as X, Meta and TikTok back in front of an Oireachtas committee soon to discuss the matter. Mr Carrigy added: 'There's people out there using those platforms to promote their racist views. 'As I said, spreading something that's factually incorrect, I think they need to have stronger measures or stronger controls on where people are found to be using platforms or accounts [improperly]. They should be banned, or their accounts should be shut down and closed down and banned. They have to have stricter and tighter controls with regard to the accounts that are being hosted on their platforms.' No one was injured by the shots discharged on Sunday. However, one young girl suffered a 'minor leg injury' when she fell while running from the scene.. In a transparency report issued last year, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, stated that it had suspended over four million accounts for a variety of breaches of its service and had removed more than ten million posts. However, since Elon Musk took over the platform, it has become much more robust in defending free speech rather than moderating its content.
