RTÉ has been told that it must double down on reform and structural change as political sources indicated their patience is wearing thin with the broadcaster.
Incoming Minister for Arts and Media Patrick O’Donovan met with the broadcaster’s director general Kevin Bakhurst and its chair Terence O’Rourke at its Montrose headquarters last week.
In a discussion that sources described as amicable – but also “brusque” and “robust” – Mr O’Donovan is said to have emphasised that the broadcaster needed to demonstrate progress in implementing its new strategy published last year.
A person briefed on the talks said Mr O’Donovan was “blunt about seeing action”, and that his view was that both public and political patience with RTÉ was “thin on the ground”.
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This characterisation was disputed by an RTÉ source also familiar with the exchanges, who did however acknowledge that the conversation was “robust” around the broadcaster’s reform agenda.
Reports last weekend said a €50 million plan to cut jobs and generate savings, largely through a voluntary severance programme at the broadcaster, had been stymied by a lack of urgency within the Government, with senior Montrose figures said to be blaming the Department of Public Expenditure for failing to give final approval for its scheme.
RTÉ was caught up in a scandal for much of 2023 after it emerged that former Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy had received undisclosed payments on top of his published fees. This sparked a series of resignations and a clear-out at the top of the organisation, as well as a promise of root and branch reform of its corporate governance and culture.
The scandal culminated in an agreement to provide €725 million in State funding for the broadcaster over three years, with the television licence fee retained despite calls for it to be scrapped, and the commitment to multiyear annual funding from the government.
At the meeting Mr Bakhurst took Mr O’Donovan through the broadcaster’s strategy and the changes that were under way, with the meeting ending positively amid a broad agreement, it is understood.
A spokeswoman for Mr O’Donovan said he had visited the Montrose campus last Wednesday, and that the meeting was “both positive and constructive”.
A spokesman for RTÉ said it was “pleased to have the opportunity to set out the substantial progress made in reforms and its commitment to delivering the ambitious five-year strategy, particularly once the [voluntary exit package] has been agreed.”
In an interview with the Irish Examiner before he was appointed to his current role, Mr O’Donovan was sharply critical of RTÉ – warning that the broadcaster risked losing younger viewers if it did not overhaul its programming.
“I don’t see that generation coming back, not unless there is a radical shift within what we deem to be public service broadcast to actually bring them back,” he said, telling the paper that “repeats of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Willy Wonka will not cut it”.
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