The Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI) has accused the government of failing to deliver on its broadcasting promises as outlined in the Programme for Government.

The IBI says the coalition is continuing to "protect RTÉ's privileged position to the detriment of independent radio stations".

The radio body, which represents Ireland's independent broadcasters, says that despite the fact that research shows its members command almost 70% of time spent listening to radio in this country, "government policy remains 100% biased toward RTÉ. That is despite a commitment in the Programme for Government to ensure a viable future for both public and independent broadcasters."

The charges come today on World Radio Day, which has been set aside by UNESCO to mark the positive contribution of radio to community and society.

John Purcell, chairman of the IBI, says that independent broadcasters have run out of patience with inaction on broadcasting policy, which it says is failing Irish audiences.

"Fine Gael and Labour made a clear commitment in the Programme for Government that they would ensure fair play for all broadcasters. When we meet them they repeatedly tell us how valuable our contribution to Irish society is, but they have done absolutely nothing to address our issues since coming to power," Mr Purcell said.

"In stark contrast, RTÉ Radio continues to enjoy a broadcasting landscape where it can have its cake and eat it, as both a commercial operator and a publicly funded broadcaster."

"It has a commercial cushion worth tens of millions from the license fee and can charge what it likes for advertising, using the licence fee to undercut commercial operators. Yet it is still massively expensive, incredibly costing Irish families more than domestic water bills in terms of the TV license fee."

"Because RTÉ is trying to be all things to all people, they squander large amounts of public money on huge salaries for their "stars" and waste millions on large areas of programming which cannot be remotely described as having any “public service” merit."

Money pumped into 2FM 'cannot be justified'

The IBI adds that RTÉ has freedom to entice entire programme teams from the independent stations on higher wages, it can introduce schedule changes at the blink of an eye, it can spend money establishing new radio stations "which mirror independent radio stations offerings without fear of interference from either the regulator or the minister."

Recent reports quoted the Communications Minister Alex White as saying that RTÉ would have to choose between licence fee monies and commercial revenue, "prove that this government is not only ignoring its own commitments in ensuring a viable public and independent broadcasting sector, but equally it is ignoring the choices made by Irish audiences who's views it is elected to represent", the IBI says.

It also criticises the position of 2FM - where it says millions of euro of public money was wasted propping up a station with a small audience and "is only replicating what is already provided free of charge to the Irish public by independent broadcasters nationally, regionally and locally."

The IBI believes the resources, frequencies and staff of 2FM should be used to provide innovative programming that is genuinely public service in nature, aimed at a younger audience and which cannot otherwise be viable provided by independent stations. "This is easy to do and would make lots of sense. The existing audience for the station in its current format cannot justify the millions spent on it," Mr Purcell said.

Meanwhile the IBI says that 'Sound and Vision' a scheme set up with the intention of supporting independent radio has essentially become a vehicle for programming which ends up on RTÉ.

"The Sound and Vision Scheme was set up with the key objective of supporting public service broadcasting on Irish independent radio. Over the years however it has evolved into a bureaucratic monster which has become dominated by RTÉ and is used mainly for niche programming which generates small audiences."

"It should be totally reformed to ensure that the money available from the license fee is used to sustain live speech-based mainstream programming on independent stations, supporting programming and services to listeners that will otherwise become increasingly difficult to sustain commercially," he added.