Tánaiste Michael Martin warned RTÉ against calls to sell its Donnybrook land, claiming that “often selling land is something you regret later”, reports RTE.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the government would not insist on selling the RTE site.
Yesterday, RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst told the Oireachtas media committee that “all options are on the table – full sale, partial sale and doing nothing” – when asked about a possible sale of the site.
He said he didn’t believe in “doing nothing” and added that he wanted an assessment of the entire area, which he hoped would be done in a few weeks.
Speaking to reporters at today’s Brexit briefing, Tánaiste Michael Martin said that while he did not want to “give in to being the person who has to come up with a detailed plan” for the broadcaster, he was not convinced that selling Montrose was a wise move, reports RTE.
Describing the suggestion as “silly”, Mr Martin said: “You can say sell the land, but that doesn’t create sustainability. These [land sales] are a once off, it creates once off capital revenue, it doesn’t deal with long term sustainability. I’ve been in Government a long time and, you know, quite often selling land is something you regret later,” reports RTE.
Asked when management should produce a detailed plan for RTÉ’s future and submit it to the government, and whether it needs to be before the budget is passed to ensure funding, Mr Martin said the budget is still “a few weeks” away.
Meanwhile, speaking in Foynes, Co Limerick this afternoon, Prime Minister Leo Vardkar said the government would not insist on selling the land to RTE.
“We will not be making demands of that nature, but what we want to hear from the DG and the board are what their plans are and what they are planning to do to improve the financial situation of the company, but also their vision for a successful RTÉ in the future, which is just as important, because it is our public service broadcaster and we want it to be successful,” he said, reports RTE.
Mr Varadkar said the potential further sale of the Donnybrook land needed to be considered – whether it made sense to sell part or all of it – but there would be costs involved if RTÉ moved, so “it’s important that any decision makes sense and adds up and is not done just for demonstration purposes,” reports RTE.
Trade unions at RTÉ say they had no prior knowledge of the recruitment freeze, which was announced in an email to Mr Buckhurst’s staff yesterday.
The chairman of the Dublin Broadcasting branch of the National Union of Journalists said staff were concerned about the announcement and needed clarification on what the hiring freeze meant.
Emma O Kelly said some areas of the organization, including the newsroom, were already understaffed.
“That means we struggle to get to cover stories that we feel we need to cover; staff struggle to be allowed to take their annual leave because there is very often no one to step in and replace them when they are gone”, she said, reports RTE.
“I think any increased funding must be conditional on ensuring decent pay and conditions for those who are carrying the load of work in RTÉ,” Labour leader Ivana Bacik said, reports RTE.
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