After RTÉ management informed workers this week of plans to wind down the broadcaster’s television documentary unit imminently, an already febrile atmosphere in Montrose has darkened substantially.
Journalists were told on Wednesday that, due in part to the impact of RTÉ’s flagship voluntary exit strategy on the documentary unit, some staff would be redeployed to other parts of the organisation. No jobs will be lost, but the net effect of this game of musical chairs is that the unit will cease in-house production in 2026. It will, however, retain a commissioning editor as RTÉ ramps up its spending on external productions.
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The wider context for this is that the Government’s flagship Broadcasting (Amending) Bill, winding its way through the legislative process, mandates the national broadcaster to spend at least 25 per cent of its funding on privately produced content. A boon for the so-called independent production sector, the policy has been decried by journalists, technicians and other RTÉ staff members represented by its trade union group as an exercise in backdoor privatisation.
RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst and other senior leaders have bristled at this characterisation. Steve Carson, the organisation’s director of video, told Morning Ireland on Friday that working with the independent sector is not outsourcing, but contributing to Ireland’s creative economy.
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That will be thin gruel for the organisation’s employees, many of whom are wondering if their department will be next on the chopping block. In-house religious affairs programming has already been axed, and plans are afoot to offload production of the Late Late Show and Fair City. Employees are wondering what will be left after this latest round of cuts.
It’s becoming abundantly clear that – morale be damned – Bakhurst and team are not messing around when it comes to driving forward their transformation plan for the broadcaster. But that plan has also put management on a collision course with staff members, which looks difficult to avert.
