Four new members are to be appointed to the RTÉ Board after they were selected by the Oireachtas Communications Committee.
The new members of the RTÉ Board are financial journalist and founder of Women on Air Margaret E Ward, financial journalist, chief financial officer with London-based company the Economist Group Shane Naughton, Aer Arann founder Pádraig O’Ceidigh and chief executive of alcohol industry-funded body Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society (Meas) Fionnuala Sheehan, .
Last month, RTÉ lost two-thirds of its governing board as the term of six board members – Sean O’Sullivan, Karlin Lillington, Fergus Armstrong, Patricia Quinn, Alan Gilsenan and Joe Little – all came to an end on August 31st. The term of the board’s chairman Tom Savage, a former broadcaster and director of PR firm the Communications Clinic, also came to an end.
RTÉ journalist and newsreader Aengus Mac Grianna replaced Joe Little as the worker’s representative on the RTÉ board last month.
In July, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications announced it was looking for expressions of interest from “qualified members of the public”, who would like to be considered for appointment to the board of RTÉ.
To be considered for the position, applicants were told they would need experience in a number of areas including media affairs, public service broadcasting, digital media technologies, legal or regulatory affairs and business.
The committee also chose four new members to sit on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) following a private meeting yesterday.
The four appointments to the BAI will be Clare Duignan, former managing director of RTÉ Radio, Dr Rosemary Day of the Department of Media at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Professor Maeve McDonagh of the Faculty of Law at University College Cork and Denis Wolinski, former head of the Independent Television Commission in Northern Ireland.
Five members of the BAI board - Bob Collins, Paula Downey, Séamus Martin, Michelle McShortall and Maria Moloney finished their five-year term on September 30th .
Under the Broadcasting Act 2009, the BAI board has to have nine members and there must be a gender balance.
