The former RTE weather presenter, Ms Evelyn Cusack, has said she is willing to go back on television after an announcement by the station that it is preparing to return qualified meteorologists to the screen.
Speaking last night, Ms Cusack - one of a team of meteorologists replaced last month by new television presenters in what proved to be a controversial new policy - said that if asked she would return. "I haven't been told anything officially, but I would be willing to go back", she said.
Her comments followed an announcement by RTE's Managing Director of Television, Mr Joe Mulholland, that he was in negotiation with Met Eireann to "find a new formula for the future". He said that a mix of the professional meteorologists and new presenters would represent "the best of both worlds".
"If this is called a U-turn, so be it", Mr Mulholland said. Informed of Ms Cusack's willingness to present the weather again, he said he was delighted to hear this.
Mr Mulholland acknowledged the feelings of the public, who had made their opposition to the changes known in recent weeks, but said that there had been a lot of misinformation about the forecasts. He insisted that they were consistently factual and accurate.
However, during one television broadcast last week a new presenter gave the forecast while standing in front of the wrong temperature graphics, a chart which had been used the day before. Mr Mulholland acknowledged the error yesterday. "These things happen in television", he told The Irish Times.
The move to bring back the meteorologists follows weeks of public protest at the shorter, less-detailed forecasts and the fact that they were not being presented by qualified meteorologists. Eireann Support Group was set up. Fishermen, sailors and farmers all expressed dissatisfaction with the changes, some saying that they now watched the weather on BBC. Pressure has also come from within RTE. In the past week the chairman of the RTE Authority, Mr Farrel Corcoran, complained about the changes to the Director-General of RTE, Mr Bob Collins.
RTE and Met Eireann are due to meet next week, and any compromise is expected to include a mix of the original weather team, which also included Mr Gerard Fleming, Ms Joan Blackburn and Dr Aidan Nulty, and the new presenters.
The compromise may lead to RTE accepting what Met Eireann proposed when the changes to the weather were first mooted, one source said. The suggestion was that RTE should use the new presenters only on Network Two, leaving the professionals to present the weather on the main channel. That proposal was rejected by RTE during the summer.