The Flood Tribunal has heard that RTÉ could have gone out of business if the cap that the former Minister for Communications, Ray Burke, had placed on the station's advertising revenue had remained in place. The cap was introduced in 1990 shortly after Century Radio went on air but it was abolished three years later. The Tribunal has heard that RTÉ would have lost more than £186m over the past seven years if the cap had remained.
RTÉ's Chief Financial officer, Gerry O'Brien, told the Tribunal that if the cap had not been removed RTÉ would now have a negative worth of minus £16m. The station, he said, would not have been able to continue providing the service it currently provides. However, lawyers for Ray Burke objected to this evidence. They said that it dealt with what "might have been" and did not advance the enquiry. They said that the figures were speculative, a charge rejected by RTÉ's legal team. In previous evidence Mr O'Brien outlined how the station lost £17.8m as a direct result of the cap. Around 200 jobs were also lost.
Former Director General of RTÉ Vincent Finn told the Tribunal that he was absolutely shocked by a ministerial directive which reduced dramatically the amount that RTÉ could charge Century Radio for transmission. Mr Finn said that by February of 1989, RTÉ had reduced its proposed transmission fee to a "rock bottom" £614,000. However, one month later, and following a request from Century Radio, Ray Burke issued a directive reducing the transmission charge to below the £375,000 requested by Century.
