RTÉ will now be allocated the controversial €20million cut in funding announced by Media Minister Patrick O’Donovan in this month’s Budget, Cabinet sources told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
On Budget day, Mr O’Donovan – who remains seriously ill in hospital after collapsing almost two weeks ago – dropped a bombshell when he announced next year’s allocation to the broadcaster would be €240million, rather than the expected €260million.
The minister said at the time that the cut in funding was due to the broadcaster’s lack of progress in implementing its promised reforms.
However, senior Government sources this weekend revealed the shortfall will be made up when Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers brings a memo to Cabinet next month.
It is understood agreement was reached in a post-Budget meeting held between Minister O’Donovan and RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst that the funding shortfall could be recouped if station management could show evidence of progress.
Last week, the MoS revealed RTÉ had finally submitted a revised business plan for the second round of the scheme that was supposed to deliver 400 redundancies by 2029.
A Cabinet source said yesterday: ‘RTÉ will demonstrate some agreed reforms to the minister and the money will be handed over. Respectfully to people who would say it’s serious money, it’s not in the context of the full Budget.’
But the source added: ‘The real discussion is about the €520million RTÉ is seeking for 2028 and 2029. And that is going to be far more consequential and confrontational.’
Most of the tensions with Government centre around RTÉ’s stalled redundancy scheme, under which the broadcaster has promised to deliver 400 job cuts.
However, there are now fears Mr O’Donovan’s health problems could further delay the next round of the Voluntary Exit Programme (VEP).
A source told the MoS: ‘The business in the department is taken care of by civil servants but the minister is needed for the sign-off, and that’s where the difficulty lies.’
An RTÉ source added: ‘It’s been a long, tortuous process to get here. For those looking to leave, it seems the wait will go on longer.’
Mr O’Donovan was hospitalised 12 days ago for the second time this year and was treated in the Intensive Care Unit of Limerick University hospital.
He remains in hospital this weekend.
It is understood the minister – who has spoken publicly about his epilepsy diagnosis – suffered a seizure during an EU meeting in Limerick.
Speaking prior to his collapse – the Fine Gael TD was also hospitalised in July while in Brussels – Mr O’Donovan hit back against critics within his own party, accusing those who commented on his health of ‘the ultimate betrayal’.
A Government spokesman this week said his condition remains stable and that it is likely he will remain in hospital for ‘another period’.
Last week, his family said he will return to work ‘as soon as new treatment has bedded in’.
It was announced this week that Minister O’Donovan’s most senior civil servant at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, Secretary General Feargal Ó Coigligh, will take temporary charge during his absence from Government duties.
In response to queries, RTÉ said this weekend: ‘A second VEP proposal is currently with the department for approval, following submission by RTÉ of an updated business case.
‘Once approved, details of the VEP will be announced to RTÉ staff in the first instance, before wider communication.’
So far, only 68 of RTÉ’s employees have left under the broadcaster’s voluntary redundancy scheme.
In a business plan submitted to the department in June, RTÉ said a further 60 job cuts would be announced by the end of this year, but this is looking unlikely now.
The department told the MoS it had several queries about RTÉ’s business plan when it received it in June, but only received answers to those enquiries last week.
A spokesman said last week: ‘The department received an initial business case for a 2026/2027 Voluntary Exit Programme (VEP) from RTÉ on 17 June 2026.
‘This was reviewed by the department and NewERA, and observations were provided to RTÉ requesting submission of an updated and more comprehensive business case, which was received from RTÉ this week.’
They added: ‘The business case will now be considered by the minister, prior to seeking the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation.’
RTÉ sources have indicated the parameters of the redundancy scheme will widen and that Montrose bosses will no longer have to demonstrate it can make a 100 per cent saving with each voluntary redundancy agreed.
A senior management source said that the need to fully suppress a job – which was a stipulation of the first round of the VEP – will now be removed.
The source told the MoS that: ‘We’re going to see a much less strict scheme, which will get people shifted out – and that is going to happen imminently.’
More than 300 staff members had expressed an interest in leaving RTÉ under the VEP when it was launched last year.
