Senior executives at RTÉ will face questions on policy, governance and expenditure at the broadcaster when they appear before an Oireachtas Committee on Media this afternoon.
Director General Kevin Bakhurst will tell the committee that “strong progress” has been made in implementing the New Direction strategy and RTÉ is on a firm financial footing having a reported a surplus of €5.3 million for 2024, compared to a deficit of €10.3m the previous year.
He will say that a larger surplus will be delivered for this year.
Mr Bakhurst will also tell the committee that the scheme to reduce the workforce by 400 over the next five is under way, and there was a “favourable” response this year, with more than 300 applications received.
He will say the broadcaster will apply next year to run a second exit scheme and that work is ongoing to “explore how we can facilitate applicants who, for various reasons, we could not accommodate in 2025”.
Fianna Fáil TD and member of the Joint Committee on Arts, Media and Communications Malcolm Byrne said there will be questions around progress on issues, but also assuring that Mr Bakhurst stays the course in RTÉ and continues to deliver.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said the DG has provided real leadership in difficult circumstances.
Mr Byrne said that RTÉ was moving towards a publisher broadcaster model, like Channel 4 or TG4, but the question is whether the public are seeing quality programming and getting value for money as taxpayers.
He said that it was not about “hollowing out” RTÉ, but the committee wants to see necessary reforms as well as continuing to hear Irish stories and quality public service broadcasting.
He said that committee members will ask about progress with the voluntary redundancy package and expect to hear that around 100 people have taken up the package this year.
“We want to know that we are on the right trajectory to achieve objectives”.