WATCH: Ciaran Mullooly talks Longford, RTE scandal and new book at Ploughing 2023

Longford man and former RTE Midlands Correspondent Ciaran Mullooly spoke to our reporter at the National Ploughing Championships on Wednesday where he was promoting his new book, The Future Is Now.

In it, Ciaran talks about the future for the Midlands, in particular, and looks at community development and industry in the area over the years.

He also delves into topics like the RTE payments scandal and the Lanesborough man told us that RTE should be split in two.

Speaking about media, Ciaran said there is a "tabloidy thing" where we "must go after someone in a blame game" but added that "where it's different in RTE is that at the end of the day, it was public licence fee money."

He continued: "It's not as if it's a private company. People pay their licence fee and they expect a certain standard. It's in the book, but the day is coming we're going to have to split RTE's operations. I think the licence fee should be there for news, current affairs and sport.

"I do not think the television licence fee should be funding the Late Late Show or a lot of our drama and entertainment shows. That should come from commercial income."

He went on to say that the scandal was frustrating for ordinary staff at RTE and the public because it came "at a time RTE's facilities around the country are understaffed," pointing out, "we don't have a camera person in the Athlone regional studio or the Dundalk studio."

He said the studio in Athlone has been downgraded and "doesn't even have a television camera in there."

"That's why people like me get annoyed when we hear that money is being spent on other things."

Ciaran goes on to talk about the impact the loss of Bord na Mona jobs has had on the region as well as snippets from his earlier books.

You can watch the full chat with Ciaran Mullooly at the top of this article.