RTE job cuts after Ryan Tubridy scandal as broadcaster looks to gain public faith | Newstalk
RTÉ will today officially inform staff about its plan to cut around 400 jobs in the next two years.
The broadcaster handed its new ‘strategic vision’ for its future to the Media Minister Catherine Martin yesterday evening.
It is now due to reveal the plan to staff this afternoon.
The plan includes the rollout of a voluntary redundancy scheme for 20% of the broadcaster’s staff.
The scheme would cost the taxpayer around €40 million and will impact on around 400 of the broadcaster’s roughly 1,800 employees.
The document also includes plans to reduce in-house productions and sharply increase spending on independent productions.
The plan would also see part of the broadcaster’s Donnybrook campus sold off and a number of RTÉ services cut.
That sale will see some production moving from Dublin to Cork – before expanding into Limerick and Galway in the future.
The plan also promises to significantly reduce the number of staff that are paid salaries of more than €100,000.
This morning, the National Union of Journalists warned that the fact staff learned about the plan through “leaks in the media” yesterday was a further blow in an organisation where morale is at an all-time low.
The union’s Irish Secretary Seamus Dooley said the leak was ‘disrespectful’ and ‘a breach of trust’.
“It has appeared in the media before staff heard from the Director General,” he said.
“We were scheduled to have the meeting today at 10am followed by a lunchtime presentation or ‘town hall’ presentation.
“That has now been pre-empted by leaks in the media.
“As the Irish Secretary of the NUJ, I am not criticising any journalist for getting the leak but we did ask RTÉ to make the document available at an earlier stage.”
Separately, the Public Accounts Committee will meet this morning to discuss a note taken during a meeting in relation to Ryan Tubridy’s contract.
The Chair of PAC Brian Stanley told Newstalk that RTÉ must have a credible workable plan in place in order to restore confidence.
“The PAC are very interested are seeing that there is a credible strategic plan on the way forward for RTÉ,” he said.
“I think the new senior executive team there are clear on what is required here in terms of rebuilding public trust and in terms of our Government awarding extra funding for RTÉ.”
Yesterday, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Government would not allow RTÉ to cease operating, noting that it remains an “essential service” and a “public service broadcaster”.
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Credit to : Newstalk
