Virgin Media boss demands RTÉ's removal from commercial advertising

Paul Farrell, managing director of Virgin Media Television, has written to Minister for Media Catherine Martin demanding that RTÉ divests itself of its non-public service broadcasting assets, the Sunday Independent reports.

In the wake of the scandal over unreported payments to former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy, Mr Farrell has called for Ms Martin to take action over the public broadcaster’s use of millions of euro to buy US sitcoms and British shows including EastEnders.

The executive said that Virgin also wants RTÉ to be removed from the commercial advertising market here, warning that it would “review any remedies” available to it if action is not taken immediately.

Requesting a meeting to discuss the issues, Mr Farrell said: “In relation to the governance of public money at RTÉ, things have been askew for a very long time.

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“There has been no relationship to speak of between the use of and accounting for public money, and investment in public service broadcasting. All money – the licence fee and commercial advertising money – went into the same pot, which was where, in our view, accountability began and ended.”

Google faces staff backlash over remote work changes

The Business Post reports that Google is facing “significant” backlash from its Irish employees over plans across the group’s global operations to make office attendance a factor in performance reviews.

Preliminary results of a staff survey conducted by the Financial Services Union indicate that an overwhelming 97.5 per cent of the tech giant’s Dublin workers do not agree with the proposal.

Separately, documents seen by the paper show that staff representing Google workers during lay-off talks earlier this year criticised management over its handling of the process, and said the Irish leadership team had little power when it came to making decisions.

The documents said the Irish leadership team was “not empowered” to make decisions on issues such as its proposal to let staff avail of voluntary redundancy to avoid compulsory lay-offs.

Zinc price outlook clouds hopes of return to work at Tara Mines

The Sunday Times reports that the chief executive of the Swedish company that owns Tara Mines does not expect zinc prices to rebound until next year, casting doubt on whether some 600 workers laid off at the Co Meath facility will be able to return to work early.

Mikael Staffas, president and chief executive of Boliden, told analysts last week that the decision to shut the mine recently related to falling mineral prices, European recession fears and the strengthening of the euro against the dollar. Mr Staffas added that the group does not expect a “good rebound” in the price of the commodity until next year.

Energy prices “also played into the equation”, he said, adding that a deal to secure lower bills could lead to a quicker reopening.

SurveyMonkey plots Dublin expansion

With positive news from the international IT sector thin on the ground these days, the Sunday Independent reports that SurveyMonkey is planning an expansion of its Dublin office as it plots new artificial intelligence (AI) investments.

The US survey software developer, which was taken private earlier this year in a deal that valued it at €1.3 billion, has a “growing interest” in the technology, including generative AI that can create content based off prompts by users, the paper reports.

“Dublin has been a really strong office and strong pool of talent for us a on a number of fronts and we expect that to continue,” said chief executive Eric Johnson. “There’s some development work being done here.”

Vote on Solar 21 debt restructuring to be held

Finally, the Business Post reports that a vote to decide whether the troubled energy firm Solar 21′s proposed debt restructuring plan will be approved by investors is expected to be held in the coming months.

The company ran into difficulty after defaulting on repaying investors – who were issued loan notes, an unregulated financial product – in its first energy from waste (EFW) plant in Melton, East Yorkshire, which it said had been delayed by Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

Investors, however, have taken issue with a proposed restructuring deal, over how money raised through the issuing of loan notes was spent. High Court judge Mr Justice Michael Quinn said last week that he will make an order convening the holding of a vote later this month.