RTÉ to reportedly reduce staff by 400 and cut some services

RTÉ will shed some 400 employment positions and cut a number of services as part of the national broadcaster's plan to handle recent financial losses.

Under the strategic reform plan handed to Government, details of which leaked on Monday, the voluntary redundancies are to be made by 2028.

The plan, reported by RTÉ News, will also prioritise upgraded technology, live and online content, with some services to be reduced and more production in Cork and in other regions in the years ahead.

More content will be produced by the independent sector, RTÉ reported, and it will continue to reduce the pay of high-income presenters as well as retain a 2023 pay cap.

RTÉ said in a statement that it will publish its strategic vision document on Tuesday, following a meeting with trade unions and staff representative groups, as well as a briefing of staff by director general Kevin Bakhurst.

The Trade Union Group (TUG) called on RTÉ to publish the full document and make it available to staff immediately.

A spokesman said: “It is not acceptable that staff should find out about the plan in this way and now be worried about the security of their jobs.”

Last month, Bakhurst warned the broadcaster would become insolvent by early spring next year, without additional funding from the Government.

Ministers are currently withholding €40 million, to consolidate a profit gap created by plummeting licence fee revenue, pending the delivery of the strategic reform plan from RTE.

The Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee was told that RTÉ is now facing a financial loss of between €10-12 million this year.

Speaking at a press conference in Dublin earlier, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the government would not allow RTÉ to fail.

“I believe RTÉ is an essential service, it’s a public service broadcaster, and we’re not going to allow it to fail, we’re not going to allow it to cease to operate,” he said.