The Director General of RTÉ has said media organisations in Ireland are under very serious financial strain and RTÉ is no different.

Speaking at an Oireachtas committee hearing, Dee Forbes said while advertising income has improved over the past couple of years, Brexit is now having a direct impact and a Trump presidency is creating further uncertainty.

She also said the digital age is dramatically changing audience behaviour and audience expectations.

"Audiences now expect, and can now get any media they want, free of charge, when they want it, on multiple devices. The internet is powering all of this change and as broadband speeds increase and price decreases the pace of change will increase further," she said.

Facebook and Google between them are now taking approximately 80% of global digital advertising revenues, while investing almost nothing in original journalism, programming or content, she added.

"Indeed their entire business models are built on selling targeted advertising around other people's work, with little or no compensation for the original producer," Ms Forbes told the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

However she said around 90% of all television viewing in Ireland is to live television and that figures for radio listening in Ireland show that over 80% of people in Ireland listen to the radio every day.

The purchase of Virgin by Liberty Global and the subsequent takeover by Virgin of both TV3 and UTV Ireland now means that all national commercial television in Ireland is owned by one highly resourced international media organisation, which will bring new commercial competition to RTÉ, she said.

Ms Forbes said the key focus for RTÉ will always be investment in high-quality Irish programming, Irish storytelling and Irish journalism.

RTÉ will continue to reduce costs but it does not have enough resources to remain competitive or, in the longer term, relevant, let alone be the engine that drives the broader Irish creative economy, she continued.

Ms Forbes said the current television licence fee system is no longer fit for purpose and over €50m a year is lost to public service media. 

She said RTÉ believes that a household-based licence, "decoupled from any device" is the most sensible solution but there are other reforms to the current system that can be made including tendering the collection agent contract.

Ms Forbes said there is an obligation to come up with a five-year plan for RTÉ with the BAI, which the broadcaster is currently working on, and it will be published towards the middle of next year.

She said leading into that will be the longer term vision for RTÉ, which she said the organisation is very much across now.

She said RTÉ wants to come up with a "living and breathing" document that it can deliver over a period of time, as the industry is an evolving one and RTÉ needs to engage in a process of creating a strategy that is deliverable.