LAST UPDATE | 14 Nov 2023
[This is a developing story - for our report on the RTÉ staff meeting and latest developments click here]
THE GOVERNMENT HAS approved interim funding of €56 million for RTÉ for this year and next year, subject to conditions.
The bailout includes €16 million already approved by the Government in this year’s budget.
The first installment of the remaining €40 million will be paid in the first quarter of next year after the Expert Advisory Committees reports, set up by the Government, are published.
A second instalment will be made in the second half of the year “providing satisfactory progress is being made by RTÉ on governance and reforms”.
In a statement, the Minister for Media Catherine Martin said the decision on funding “is necessary to ensure in the short term the continued operations of RTÉ”.
“However, a long-term reform of the public funding model is critical to ensure the national broadcaster is on a sustainable footing, and to ensure good quality public service broadcasting into the future. This will be addressed as a matter of priority for this Government,” she said.
“Until a new long-term funding model is in place, it is critically important that people pay the TV Licence fee. It is not only required by law, it underpins vibrant public service content which is of critical importance to our democracy and society.”
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who confirmed the funding approval this afternoon, told reporters that €56 million is a large amount of taxpayers money.
“I think if I was to come out today and say that was being made available in a way without any conditions, and without any oversight, I think that would also be a cause of huge concern to the taxpayer,” he said.
Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has confirmed that the Government has approved interim funding of €56 million for RTÉ, subject to conditions. pic.twitter.com/pFMWpA6vxE
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) November 14, 2023
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One programme, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the national broadcaster is an asset and that public service broadcasting and impartial and balanced news is more important than ever.
“That’s why RTÉ can’t be allowed to fail in my view,” he said.
It comes as RTÉ staff are set to be briefed by management about plans to cut some 400 jobs at the national broadcaster.
Director General Kevin Bakhurst is expected to outline the “strategic vision” plan to staff members after much of the details of the plan were leaked yesterday evening.
The meeting, which was due to be held at 12.30pm will now take place at 3.30pm.
Minister Martin said the strategic vision plan “demonstrates a renewed commitment to public service broadcasting, and addresses key areas such as governance reforms and cost efficiencies”.
“This is vital as RTÉ seeks to rebuild the trust and confidence of the Irish public. I am acutely aware, however, of how difficult and challenging this is for the organisation, and particularly for its staff.”
The cost-saving plan, which is due to be published today, sets out the cost of voluntary redundancy scheme at an estimated €40 million.
The plan also intends to further reduce operating costs by around €10 million next year.
Overall, the plan sets out to reduce the headcount of staff at the national broadcaster by 20%.
The Taoiseach said the plan does not require Government approval.
“This is a recommendation that the RTÉ executive and RTÉ board are making, and every organisation has to cut its cloth to meet its measure,” he told News at One.
I know a lot of this is going to come as a shock to a lot of very good hardworking people who work in RTÉ. But I think what has to happen really now is for management to engage with the staff. That’s the right approach.
He said he hopes that the redundancies can be achieved voluntarily and that compulsory redundancies can be avoided.
Asked if the Government would be prepared to sign off on compulsory redundancies, he said: “I can’t think of a precedent in recent times where there were compulsory redundancies in a State-owned enterprise or a state agency so I can’t envisage a circumstance under which that would happen.”
Varadkar said it’s intended that the Government can make a decision on a long-term funding model for public service broadcasting in the next couple of months, though any new mechanism would probably be coming into effect in 2025.
“In the meantime, the TV licence is the means by which very much of RTÉ’s funding is secured. It remains the law for people to pay the TV licence and I encourage people to continue to do so,” he added.
Following reports of job losses, unions called for the plan to be published immediately stating that it was unfair for staff to hear about potential job losses via media reports.
The strategic vision plan, which went to Minister Martin at the end of last week, sets out that there will more production in Cork and in other regions in the years ahead, such as Galway and Limerick.
More content is set to be produced through independent commissions while the plan states that services such as RTÉ + 1, RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉ 2XM are to be scrapped.
The plan is also expected to outline ideas of vacating part of the Donnybrook campus.
Government sources have said the plan sets out a ‘sizeable surgery’ on the broadcaster, with some concerns raised about the sale of some of the land on the Donnybrook site, and whether it would be worth it.
A wholesale disposal of the land is not part of the plan.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne, NUJ Dublin broadcasting branch chairperson Emma O Kelly said the proposals were “bleak”.
She said that it would appear the suggestion is to cut jobs in RTÉ and farm them out to the private economy.
“It’s a smaller RTÉ, more privatisation, pushing things into the private sector, things that are currently done in house by people who have decent jobs because we fought for them to be decent jobs,” O Kelly said.
If the redundancy scheme comes to pass, you will have people leaving RTÉ and taking up the exact same position outside the broadcaster, she said.
O Kelly said the “core of this problem goes outside of RTÉ and it needs to be discussed outside of RTÉ by Government”.
“We need to hear from them. We need to hear their vision and also by the public. I want to hear what the public has to say.”
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, RTÉ Trade Union Group secretary Cearbhall Ó Síocháin said it would be a “tall order” to lose 20% of RTÉ staff.
“20% is a huge chunk of the workforce here. Any redundancies will have to be voluntary. And on past experience 400 seems like a tall order. You’re talking 100 jobs a year on average over the course of this plan,” he said.
The implications here is that staff are picking up the tab for poor governance and bad management by those who’ve walked away on big money.
The staff meeting at the broadcaster and news of job losses comes as the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is due to meet today to discuss the original note taken during a meeting in relation to Ryan Tubridy’s contract.
RTÉ u-turned on their stance that the note should not be provided to committee members due to legal reasons. It agreed on Friday to supply a summary note of the original brief, while also agreeing to supply the original document to the committee.
Members have agreed to destroy the original document once members have discussed it in private session today.
The note details a meeting between ex-RTÉ boss Dee Forbes and Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly in 2020, where it was ultimately agreed that the broadcaster would underwrite the agreement for Ryan Tubridy’s contract.
The committee chair Brian Stanley told The Journal last week that he welcomed the decision by RTÉ to supply the original note to members stating it was vital to the committee in completing their report into the controversies surrounding the national broadcaster.
The PAC had refused the broadcaster’s request to bring the note in private after an hour-long private session between the stakeholders of the inquiry.
RTÉ was plunged into crisis in June when the State broadcaster revealed it under-declared fees to Tubridy, its then-highest-paid staff member.
The scandal widened as a series of other financial and governance issues emerged.
With reporting by Hayley Halpin and Jane Moore
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