RTE's Director General Bob Collins has told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Heritage and the Irish Language that 'more formal means' are needed to make RTE accountable to the public for the expenditure of licence fee revenue.
Mr Collins went on to suggest that an independent body such as the ESRI could have a role in monitoring how money from the licence fee is spent.
Mr Collins said RTE was committed to accountability, and that it was no longer enough for RTE to proclaim that it gave good value in return for the licence fee.
In future, Mr Collins said there would be a detailed set of commitments covering such specific issues as the range of programmes to be included in RTE's schedules.
He said these would be real promises - about improvements to news, regional programmes, subtitles and children's programmes, and that there would be general answerability.
