The Broadcasting Act of 2009 specifically requires RTÉ to provide a public service that “will be made available to the whole community on the island of Ireland”.
RTÉ's formal charter goes further in setting out the organisation’s guiding principles and declares that it shall, at all times, “strive to reflect fairly and equally the regional, cultural and political diversity of Ireland and its peoples”.
Those are fine statements but there has been little evidence in recent days that both their spirit and their letter are being fairly extended to RTÉ's large audience north of the border.
While the technical and contractual difficulties facing RTÉ will be recognised, there have been prolonged suspicions that some Dublin-based officials have been paying little more than lip service to the broadcaster’s all-Ireland responsibilities.
The practice of geo-blocking, which means that RTÉ's coverage of a range of sporting fixtures, including in the past GAA matches, is only available in the south, has caused enormous frustration.
The practice of geo-blocking, which means that RTÉ's coverage of a range of sporting fixtures, including in the past GAA matches, is only available in the south, has caused enormous frustration
Legal complexities are involved, but it is plain that many northern viewers believe they have at the very least been deprived of reasonable levels of communication about the developments and effectively treated as second-class citizens.
This disappointment turned to growing anger last week when RTÉ abruptly took the unprecedented step of geo-blocking its main television news programmes in the north because of what it said were concerns over licensing rights linked to Olympic Games footage.
When a wave of criticism followed the move, including expressions of concern from former RTÉ staff members, the station was able to perform a u-turn within the space of 24 hours.
It remains difficult to understand why RTÉ did not properly announce its plans well in advance of the Olympics, obviously involving competitors from all parts of Ireland, and why northern viewers were left looking at blank screens for entire news bulletins rather than during a short section of sporting clips.
If the uproar has led to a wider policy review, it would be appropriate if RTÉ's long-standing refusal on legal grounds to allow northerners to participate in all its various high-profile competitions, with all the striking symbolism involved, was comprehensively addressed.
The then Stormont communities minister, Deirdre Hargey of Sinn Féin, told this newspaper in 2022 that she believed RTÉ did have the authority to facilitate entrants from both sides of the border, and there were indications that some belated progress was made over the last weekend.
Although the position of Ms Hargey’s successor, Gordon Lyons of the DUP, remains to be seen, it must be hoped that both the Stormont communities committee and the Irish minister with responsibility for media and sport, Catherine Martin, ensure that the key issues are satisfactorily resolved once and for all.
