RTÉ ‘working to cut costs’, Bakhurst to tell Oireachtas media committee, as broadcaster freezes recruitment

RTÉ has announced a hiring freeze and said it is “working to cut costs” - while emphasising that its funding crisis has to be addressed ahead of a key committee meeting on Tuesday.

In an email to staff on Tuesday morning, the broadcaster’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst emailed staff telling them that RTÉ is introducing a recruitment freeze with “immediate effect” and stopping “all discretionary spend” to preserve cash “while we get clarity on our financial position going forward”.

“I regret having to do this as it will impact on our coverage and on our investment in equipment and our digital plans. However, given the steep fall in the licence fee and the uncertainty over interim funding, it is the only responsible thing that we can do”.

Mr Bakhurst will tell the Oireachtas media committee this afternoon that the organisation is “managing finances carefully and working to cut costs in the face of declining revenue from the TV licence”. He will say that since he took up his position eight weeks ago he has moved “decisively and quickly” to address “clear procedural and oversight failings within the organisation”.

TV licence sales continue to plunge, leaving €6.7m shortfall in RTÉ funding

---

RTÉ funding options a source of conflict with no clear resolution in sight

---

TV licence Q&A: Efforts so far at reform, and Coalition divisions on future funding

---

No news is bad news: Morning Ireland proves daunting but necessary

---

[ Live: RTÉ board and executive members appear in front of the Oireachtas media committee to discuss the ongoing issues related to RTÉ crisis ]

The committee is to hear this afternoon from Mr Bakhurst as well as several members of the board who have not been in public session before – including deputy chair Ian Kehoe.

RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh and senior executives Adrian Lynch, Mike Fives and Paula Mullooly are also to attend, as are board members Daire Hickey, Robert Shortt, Jonathan Ruane, Anne O’Leary, Aideen Howard, Connor Murphy and PJ Matthews.

Mr Bakhurst will tell the committee that an outline plan to overhaul the broadcaster will be ready next month, with a “full strategic reform and transformation plan by the end of the year”.

However, Mr Bakhurst will use his opening statement to the meeting to call on Government to tackle the funding crisis at the broadcaster head on, refocusing attention not just on RTÉ, but on the broader structural changes to the broadcasting model in the state which the station says the coalition must address as RTÉ works on internal reforms.

“All of these reforms will be undermined if the question mark over the funding of public service media in this country is not properly resolved”.

The TV licence and the methods for collecting it, he will say, “are no longer fit to support the provision of public service media to the people of Ireland”.

“The current crisis has made the problem even more acute and jeopardises the future of public media, and RTÉ, and the viability of Ireland’s audio-visual sector.”

Mr Bakhurst, however, said that while the lapses uncovered were “the most devastating blows to the reputation of the organisation” in its century-long history, he argued they were “not reflective of the overall standards of governance and integrity within the organisation”.

Toy Show musical

Meanwhile, RTÉ chair Siun Ní Raghallaigh will tell the committee that inquiries into the Toy Show musical and voluntary redundancy schemes at the broadcaster “will be published as soon as possible” in the wake of a period that has been “unseemly, and highly damaging for RTÉ”.

Ms Ní Raghallaigh will tell the committee that the board is committed to structural and cultural reform, drawing attention to the immediate funding shortfall: “This is currently an organisation under immense pressure across a number of fronts”, she will say, arguing that there are immediate financial pressures and also that “a secure future for RTÉ means having purpose and direction and making choices and taking decisions”.

That will include, she will say, “hard decisions” which “may not be popular with stakeholders and policy makers, including perhaps this committee”.

Similar to Mr Bakhurst, she will also seek to move the focus to decisions at government level on the future funding model for RTÉ, calling for a conversation about the future of public service broadcasting against a backdrop where a “secure future for RTÉ is by no means guaranteed”.

The current licence fee system is “a legacy of a different era; obsolete, redundant, antiquated”. She will say that as a public service body, significant elements of the restructuring plan will need government approval. “Only in this way can RTÉ be empowered to make the decisions necessary to secure the future of this organisation and allow us to move forward with shared purpose”.

Concerns

Sinn Féin’s media spokeswoman Imelda Munster has expressed concern about details revealed in the documents sent to the Oireachtas committee this week before this afternoon’s appearance by RTÉ executives and board members.

Speaking on Newstalk radio, she said one of the main concerns for her is the 10 per cent pay rise that members of the executive board awarded themselves last year.

“Firstly, the Minister wasn’t made aware of that in the first instance and given all the committee meetings that we sat through with the RTÉ board, not once was it mentioned that 10 per cent substantial pay raise had been reinstated for members of the Executive board, given that they’re now looking for a bailout and are constantly crying poverty. So from a transparency point of view, they failed the first test,” she said on Newstalk this morning.

“The other issue was the top 100 earners. We had been told when we’d requested information that if those top 100 earners gave their permission, we would be furnished with those details. But in the response yesterday, they’d never even asked for permission.”

[ Eight new things we learned about the RTÉ pay controversy ]

A further issue of concern was the high number of staff on so-called bogus self employment – upwards of 700 members of staff were classified as such, she said.

One thing that was crystal clear, she said, was that RTÉ had completely lost the trust and confidence of the public, “and it’s all of their own making and they need to root out that insider thinking and insider acting and squandering of public money and other issues”.

The chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee, Niamh Smyth later told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland that today’s Oireachtas committee meeting will not be a witch hunt.

“We’re not looking for names, but we are looking for clarity on where the balance is on the top 100 earners. We know there’s 1,800 staff working within RTÉ, and the vast majority of them are not the top 100 earners.”

RTÉ had already come before the Oireachtas committee and it was “always with cap in hand”, she said.

“There is a much bigger issue here and they cannot expect either the Minister or the Government of the day to plug a €50 million gap or hole without absolute clarity and transparency about how money has been spent.”

When asked if funds should be provided to RTÉ to plug the gap, Ms Smyth responded: “I don’t think there should be one red cent handed over until we’ve got all of the questions.”

“We do need to see a plan and a strategy and very tangible measures as to how RTÉ is going to straighten itself out.” There needed to be transparency about the working relationship with the board, otherwise they were there for no other reason than to sign on the dotted line.

As for a proposal by Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan that the site at Montrose should be sold and the funds used to fund the station, Ms Smyth said that all options had to be on the table.

“To be very frank and honest, this is not a new position, but it is a deepening and worsening financial position for RTÉ. And I think all options have to be on the table if they’re to be realistic about the future.

“I think we’re at a very important crossroads for RTÉ, and I think we have seen good co-operation, if you like, with the committee itself and that we have a huge amount of documentation that has been forwarded to us over the last weeks. And you will see more of that in the future. But I think it all helps in the rebuilding of public trust and confidence in RTÉ, and I’m afraid it’s through no fault of anybody’s outside RTÉ in terms of the situation it finds itself in.”