RTÉ\'s Managing Director of News and Current Affairs has tonight defended RTÉ\'s annual extended holidays. On Twitter he defended the broadcasters annual policy of dropping many of its news and current affairs programmes during holiday periods, such as Christmas and Summertime. The former ABC executive said \

According to the Department of Communications Annual Report 2019 RTÉ received €8.1 million in extra funding in 2019 compared to 2018. In total RTÉ received €196.6 million in license fee funding, this compares to €188.5 million in 2018. TG4\'s funding from the exchequer was restore in 2019, meaning its 2018 portion of the license fee of €4.5 million came to zero in 2019. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland received €14.8 million in license fee funding in 2019, an increase of €300,000 from 2018. €222.7 million was raised from TV Licences in 2019.