Pat Kenny might have taken a little comfort from the proceedings, RTE's news team would have felt positively smug, but the man of the moment was Gerald Fleming.

Banished from our screens for a period last year, the viewers' favourite weather forecaster is now officially an RTE personality, as introduced to the Wexford public this week at an RTE roadshow designed to get feedback about the station's output.

When Fleming took a bow at the behest of the chairwoman, Prime Time presenter Miriam O'Callaghan, rapturous applause turned to laughter as the director-general of RTE, Bob Collins, quipped: "There hasn't been a dry day since he came back."

The millennium night debacle, near-hostile reaction to its coverage of the winter solstice at Newgrange, the decline in the audience of The Late Late Show and the fiasco over the attempt to replace the Met Eireann forecasters have all contributed to a torrid spell for the station.

To those concerns, the 250 people who gathered in White's Hotel last Thursday added quite a few of their own: diabolical racing coverage, too many repeats, failure to support Irish musicians, biased current affairs presenters . . .

Yet the overall mood, on a night of lively discussion, was positive. Most contributors complimented RTE on the high quality of its output, before raising a personal hobby horse. Its news, sport and current affairs output came in for particular praise, and there was genuine appreciation that senior management would take the time to come to Wexford to listen to people's views.

It wasn't a promising start, however. O'Callaghan, after introducing Collins and his team, assured those present that tonight was their turn to do the talking, and RTE's role was to listen. But not just yet. First, there was a corporate video to be endured.

A confusing, quick-fire run through 60 years of the station - or was it the history of the State? - followed, played to maximum volume. "It would blow the head off you," the woman seated next to The Irish Times said. The comprehensible bits were predictable. "My whole life has changed," one woman gushed when talking about Lyric FM.

The video over, it was back to reality. "I'm very disappointed with The Late Late Show since Pat Kenny took over," one woman told the panel. It was very much a clone of his Saturday night show. Another woman sprang to Kenny's defence, suggesting he had received unfair criticism.

RTE television's head of variety and young people's programmes, Kevin Linehan, told a speaker that its policy on children's programmes was reviewed "almost on a daily basis", more so than any other area "because it's one of the main responsibilities we have". A speaker from the floor said there was a high educational content in the programmes.

Deirdre, a sixth-year student, asked why there were no current affairs or cultural programmes for people her age. The entertainment programmes were excellent "but the only view of the world we get is through Home and Away and Friends and that's not true life".