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RTÉ IS TO cut the pay of its top presenters by 15% as part of a major restructuring plan that will seek to reduce costs by €60 million over three years.
The national broadcaster revealed details of the plan this evening which will also see 200 jobs cut next year.
Lyric FM is to be retained but its production moved from Limerick to Cork and Dublin.
RTÉ Director-General Dee Forbes said in a statement tonight that the station is in a “fight for the future” of the organisation.
Forbes said last year that RTÉ was facing “urgent and substantial financial challenges” and that change was needed.
As part of cost-cutting efforts, RTÉ has pledged to “reduce the fees paid to our top contracted on-air presenters by 15%”, this is in addition to cuts of “over 30% agreed in previous years”.
RTÉ executives are to take a 10% reduction in pay and the board of RTÉ will “waive its fees”.
As well as a reduction in staff numbers of about 200 next year, other staff-related savings are to be found.
RTÉ says it will work to reduce staff costs by consulting with staff and unions “on a number of initiatives, to include pay freeze, tiered pay reductions, review of benefits, work practice reforms”.
The broadcaster says it will close its Digital Audio Broadcast network as well as RTÉ’s digital radio stations, such as RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉ Gold.
RTÉ Aertel is to cease, the RTÉ Guide is to be sold and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is to be transferred to the National Concert Hall.
Speculation that Lyric FM’s future was in jeopardy raised fears among listeners in September but RTÉ has now confirmed that the station will be retained.
“Production of RTÉ lyric fm will move to Cork and Dublin. RTÉ will continue to provide a mid-west news service in Limerick,” the statement said.
Licence fee
In the statement this evening, RTÉ said that licence fee evasion rates in Ireland are among the highest in Europe and are “costing jobs”.
The broadcaster says that between people who evade their TV licence fee and those who just watch RTÉ programming on the RTÉ player, “over €50 million is lost to public broadcasting every year”.
“Government needs to act to ensure there is a future for public service media in Ireland. I am clear about what role RTÉ should play in Irish life, but I am also clear that we cannot do it unless government fixes the TV licence system We shouldn’t be under any illusions; we are in a fight, a fight to sustain a viable public media in Ireland,” Forbes said this evening.
The RTÉ Director-General, who spoke on last night’s Late Late Show special, said the death of Gay Byrne caused this plan to be released this week.
“Our intention was to brief staff in full this week. However, given the sad passing of our colleague Gay Byrne, a decision was taken to postpone until next week. With so much detail now in the public domain, our first priority was to contact all staff immediately with an update on the revised strategy, and plans,” she said.
In a separate statement, chair of the RTÉ board Moya Doherty said that the TV licence fee system is “broken” and “has not been fit for purpose for a long time”.
“In order to support this process of transformation that we are embarking on and to achieve financial stability, the TV Licence must be reformed. This is the responsibility of government alone,” Doherty said.
“This is one of the most defining moments in the RTÉ’s 93-year history.”
I`m surprised a bigger issue hasn`t been made out of Italy helping to bailout Spain. Really interesting video from Nigel Farrage. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/farage-euro-titanic-has-now-hit-iceberg
We’ve been totally had.
General Charles Pinckney recounts the devastating collapse of the US first fiat currency ‘The Continental’:
“With regard to Mr. Lowndes’s question ‘What harm had paper money done?’ General Pinckney answered, that he wondered that gentleman should ask such a question, as he had told the house that he had lost fifteen thousand guineas by depreciation; but he would tell the gentleman what further injuries it had done – it had corrupted the morals of the people; it had diverted them from the paths of honest industry to the ways of ruinous speculation; it had destroyed both public and private credit, and had brought total ruin on numberless widows and orphans.”
Nigel Farage explains the Spanish bailout
Different scenario IMF not involved at present.austerity measures are having a. Big effect in Spain especially on Youth Unemployment 50% and. More in some places. Unemployment needs to be tackled across the whole EU and The UKIP group have always been negative towards ANY solution . Farage is a fine speaker but so was Hitlernn
It really is long passed the time to see “The Markets”, “The IMF”, “The European Central Bank”, “The ratings Agencies” and the rest of the leeching commercial banks for what they really are. These slumdogs are really the heart of the problem. If you take all of these out of the equation, the problems disappear. They are of no real use to anyone accept themselves. They make nothing and contribute nothing at all to society or to human kind. They exist to fuel their own greed and create wealth out of nothing. They serve no use and have no industrial endeavour that forwards mankind in any way what so ever.They are indeed a horrible boil on the arse of humanity as are the people who work in them…… We either deal with boil and lance it or we continue down this horrible route which does nothing for Europe, Its citizens, Its history, Its future or its lofty ideals….. Can we just come together as a European society and deal with this parasitic cesspit of undesirables once and for all…… There you go rant over.
Well said. Why must joe average sustain a parasite industry which contributes nothing to society.
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