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We the undersigned are deeply concerned at the prospect of savage cuts at RTÉ and their implications for arts and culture coverage.
RTÉ is the only network in Ireland which provides anything like a bare minimum of consistent & broad coverage of the diverse range of Irish & international art and artists. Without RTÉ & its public service remit, there would be close to zero coverage of new & innovative literature, music, performance or visual arts on the Irish airwaves. Many Irish & Ireland-based artists rely entirely on RTÉ for coverage of our work to reach national & international audiences. Besides this, large numbers of freelance cultural workers rely on rté for occasional work in reviewing, artistic commissions, research, & so on.
The cutbacks that are now on the table for RTÉ’s arts & culture coverage will therefore have a severe impact on our ability as individuals and as a nation to produce the world-class work in all disciplines and genres that we are rightly known for all over the globe. Like many in Ireland, we each have our own criticisms of how RTÉ is run. Its pay-scales for senior management & celebrity presenters are clearly unjustifiable & should be drastically cut if necessary to help preserve RTÉ’s ability to fulfil the public service mission for which it was founded and for which it has been financially supported for generations of Irish people through license fees.
RTÉ owes it to the Irish past, present, & future to remain the key stakeholder in the comprehensive coverage of our cultural life. An Ireland which silences its writers and musicians & blanks out its visual artists is no Ireland – is no place to be proud of, is a disgrace to us all. We note the particular blow to the city of Limerick in the proposal to scale down and move LYRIC FM. Should this go ahead it will have a severe knock on effect on cultural life in a crucial west-of-Ireland city and aggravate the already prevalent Dublin-centrism in RTÉs cultural coverage & employment.
We therefore wish to express our full solidarity with the NUJ & SIPTU struggle against the cuts to quality public service programming and to the wages and conditions of all its hardworking ground staff. We call on RTÉ management and all who exert influence over them in government to reverse the course towards philistinism and the devastation of our cultural life they are now undertaking.
Christy Moore
Andy Irvine
Donal Lunny
Lisa O Neill
Molly O Mahony
Laoise Kelly
Raymond Deane
John Banville
Theo Dorgan
Declan McGonagle
Claire Kilroy
Moya Cannon
Mary O Malley
Dave Lordan
Frank Connolly
Paul McVeigh
Jess Traynor
Olwen Fouéré
Luka Bloom
Vukasin Nedeljkovic
Frank McGowan
Shane Tuohy
John Gibbs
Pat Quinn
Mick Joyce
Ann Scott
Katie McNeice
Nathan Mannion
Fergus Hogan
Mark McLoughlin
Brian Maguire
Anna Jordan
Ciaran O Rourke
Camilla Fanning
Oisin Leech
Michael O Sullivan
Stephen Murray
Siomha Cassidy Hennessy
Roos Demol
Max Hafler
Lillis O Laoire
Sinead Troy
Bríd Ní Mhaoileoin
Ann Ryan
Kellie Marie Reynolds
Hazel Hogan
Chiamaka Amadi
Deirdre Murphy
Derek Flynn
Daniel Wade
Joe Chester
Alan McGonagle
Sarah Clancy
Lee Jenkins
Keith Smith
Claire Hennessy
Sara O Rourke
Joe Horgan
Elaine Feeney
Abby Oliveira
Nicola Kearns
Martin McLelland
Kevin Higgins
Colm Scullion
Geraldine Mitchell
Karl Parkinson
Moze Jacobs
Seamus Nolan
Terry Moore
Sven Kretchmar
Nuala Leonard
Michael Breatnach
Vanessa O Loughlin
Carl Corcoran
Dean Kelly
Jacinta Lynch
Dave Lordan 