The fallout from overpayments by RTÉ to presenter Ryan Tubridy means the public don't want to see the broadcaster getting more money.
That's according to Newstalk Breakfast host Ciara Kelly, who was speaking as Dee Forbes announced her resignation as RTÉ Director-General 'with immediate effect'.
The Government has announced an external review into governance and culture in RTÉ after it confirmed it paid the former Late Late Show host €345,000 more than it declared between 2017 and 2022.
RTÉ has also been invited to appear before the Oireachtas Media Committee on Wednesday.
Ciara said she can't see a way for RTÉ to regain credibility.
"This cover up wasn't accidental, it was entirely deliberate," she said.
"The difficulty for RTÉ as I see it is this: they have misled the Government, they have misled the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee repeatedly because Dee Forbes has been in and out of there looking for money.
"They misled and they lied, and they also lied to the public.
"The public is made up of, let's just say, three groups - the taxpayers who pay the wages of RTÉ, it is made up of their listeners and viewers and people who are supposed to trust RTÉ, but it's made up of the colleagues of Ryan Tubridy.
"The workers in RTÉ were lied to: they were told that everybody in the top earners took 15% as a paycut.
"It turns out most of them did but not all of them did.
"Those types of lies will fester, because those types of lies were told for a reason: they were told to manipulate people, to manipulate figures, to manipulate the balance sheets and manipulate those staff into taking pay cuts too.
"I don't know how RTÉ comes back".
Ciara said this scandal has ultimately damaged the funding model for the national broadcaster.
"I don't know how they're going to, in the medium even to long-term, get a proper funding model for public service broadcasting now in this country," she said.
"There is no appetite for it, because the public don't want to see RTÉ getting extra money now.
"Any politician that tries to support public service broadcasting getting funding will be an unpopular move.
"Lastly, I don't know how RTÉ holds its head up, in terms of interviewing people, in terms of difficult situations that it now has to be able to stand over its own personal integrity," she added.
