RTÉ needs State money to fund voluntary job cuts, director general tells staff

RTÉ needs Government money to fund voluntary job cuts in a new drive to reduce costs, station chief Kevin Bakhurst indicated in a briefing for staff in the crisis-struck broadcaster.

On a day when RTÉ said chief financial officer Richard Collins had resigned, Mr Bakhurst told a town-hall meeting of staff that he will present a strategic plan in early November to reduce the size of the organisation.

“We will be smaller,” he said, without quantifying the likely number of job cuts.

The Bakhurst plan, pivotal for RTÉ's future, follows a summer of turmoil over undisclosed payments to former star presenter Ryan Tubridy which set off a financial crisis when TV licence sales collapsed.

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RTÉ had sought €34.5 million in Budget 2024 this week but will receive only €16 million in an initial payment in post-budget supplementary estimates.

Minister for Media Catherine Martin said she has a received a recommendation for €40 million in further interim funding for RTÉ in a report by NewERA, a body which advises the Government on the operations of commercial semi-State companies.

Ms Martin said that €40 million was conditional on Government approval for Mr Bakhurst’s plan for RTÉ. “There’s a job of work to be done here, to rebuild, and have cost efficiencies. We can’t just hand over the money. We’re saying, we need to see your strategic vision first,” she said.

The likely cash injection is shy of the forecast €61 million reduction in lost licence fee income from mid-2023 to the end of 2024.

At his meeting with RTÉ staff, Mr Bakhurst said the organisation would need an exit package to cut the number of staff, but didn’t specify how many. Still, he said there would be no compulsory redundancies from a workforce of more than 1,800 at the end of 2022.

Asked whether the cash-strapped organisation would need Government money to pay staff to leave, RTÉ said it had already made it clear that it does not have money for voluntary redundancies.

“RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst stated at the recent joint Oireachtas committee meeting that RTÉ could not currently afford a voluntary exit programme,” a spokesman said.

“He has previously stated, and stated again to RTÉ staff today, that there are no plans to introduce compulsory redundancies,” he added.

Mr Bakhurst told staff of Mr Collins’s departure and RTÉ later said the outgoing chief financial officer will work on a handover to his as yet unidentified successor.

Mr Collins, who joined the State broadcaster in 2020, was among the RTÉ executives grilled by TDs and Senators at committee hearings in the wake of the payments affair.

Both Mr Collins and his predecessor, Breda O’Keeffe, became key figures in the controversy that started when RTÉ declared it had underreported the sums it paid to Mr Tubridy for years.

When Mr Bakhurst took office in July, his first move was to stand down RTÉ's executive board, on which Mr Collins sat, and appoint an interim leadership team that did not include him.

Mr Collins previously worked for Dunnes Stores, Musgrave Group and Dell, among other companies. He drew incredulity from politicians during one heated committee meeting by saying he did not know his exact salary, before later giving an estimate of €200,000 plus a €25,000 car allowance.

Ms Martin said officials had informed her this week that Mr Collins was likely to resign but she did not have “the details” of the decision.

“It is an operational matter. It is not for me to micromanage those operational matters.”

Mr Bakhurst said he did not believe it made financial sense for RTÉ to move away from its Donnybrook base, saying some of the buildings were listed. However, he said all options would be explored, including a shrinking of its campus.

“We’re still fighting fires, but they are containable and under control,” Mr Bakhurst said.