With the details having leaked to other media, RTÉ rushed out details of the sweeping €60 million cuts it plans to make last night.
As part of their revised 2020-’23 strategy, two hundred jobs will be shed next year, apparently on a voluntary basis; its top 10 contracted presenters will have their wages cut by 15%; RTÉ’s 2XM, Pulse, Gold, jr Radio and Radio 1 Extra offerings will be axed; the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will transfer to the National Concert Hall; RTÉ 2 will no longer carry sports coverage; and current efforts to sell the RTÉ Guide will be stepped up.
In a serious blow for Limerick where the service has been based since its May 1999 launch, the operation of Lyric FM will be split between Dublin and Cork.
That decision has been robustly criticised by Limerick Fine Gael TD, Niall Collins, who says: “Lyric FM was the one part of the RTÉ organisation which was decentralised successfully and now is a victim of its own success. I would ask the RTÉ Authority to reconsider this decision as the savings being generated don't seem material in the scheme of the overall RTÉ cost base.
"Limerick is Ireland's third largest city and to think that our national broadcaster would not have a base in the mid-west region is unbelievable. Operating a news and current affairs service can’t simply be done from the boot of a car or the side of the road."
The RTÉ Director General, Dee Forbes, says they're not leaving Limerick altogether, but "footprint downsizing" there.
In a sign of the changing media times, RTÉ player content will be enhanced, and an “integrated media centre” set up in Donnybrook as part of a new digital infrastructure.
Stay tuned to hotpress.com for further reaction to one of the biggest shake ups in RTÉ history.

‘The RTÉ of the future is a mix and a blend of, what I would say, big broadcast and on-demand. And what you will see with RTÉ 2, is RTÉ 2 being used as a window to the Player’ – RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes | https://t.co/swwXlRwJr0 pic.twitter.com/sq4vTzAMIQ

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 7, 2019