RTÉ is expected to receive the controversial €20million reduction in funding announced in this month’s Budget, with Cabinet sources telling the Irish Mail on Sunday that the broadcaster may ultimately recover the money.
Patrick O’Donovan stunned the broadcasting sector on Budget day by confirming that RTÉ’s allocation for next year would be €240million, €20million below the €260million figure that had been anticipated.
The Media Minister attributed the reduction to what he described as insufficient progress by RTÉ in delivering reforms previously promised by the organisation.
However, senior Government figures said this weekend that the missing funds could be restored next month, when Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers is expected to bring a memo before Cabinet.
The arrangement is understood to have emerged from a post-Budget meeting between Mr O’Donovan and RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst. Under the agreement, the broadcaster could reclaim the shortfall by demonstrating measurable progress on its reform programme.
The development follows the MoS report last week that RTÉ had submitted an amended business plan for the second phase of a restructuring programme expected to result in 400 redundancies by 2029.
A Cabinet source said: ‘RTÉ will show the minister that it has delivered on some of the agreed reforms, and the funding will then be released. While €20million is a significant sum, it is relatively small when viewed against the scale of the overall Budget.’
The source added that the more difficult battle would concern the €520million RTÉ is seeking for 2028 and 2029. ‘That will be a much more significant and contentious discussion,’ they said.
The main source of friction between RTÉ and the Government remains the broadcaster’s delayed redundancy plan, which includes a commitment to eliminate 400 roles.
There are also growing concerns that Mr O’Donovan’s ongoing health problems could push back the next stage of RTÉ’s Voluntary Exit Programme, or VEP.
One source told the MoS that departmental officials were continuing to manage the work, but the minister’s approval was still required before the process could move forward. ‘That is where the difficulty lies,’ the source said.
An RTÉ source described the process as lengthy and difficult, adding that staff who hoped to leave the organisation now appeared likely to face an even longer wait.
Mr O’Donovan was admitted to hospital 12 days ago, marking his second hospitalisation this year. He received treatment in the Intensive Care Unit at University Hospital Limerick.
The Fine Gael TD remained in hospital this weekend.
It is understood that the minister, who has previously spoken about being diagnosed with epilepsy, suffered a seizure during an EU meeting in Limerick.
Before his latest collapse, Mr O’Donovan criticised members of his own party who had commented on his health. He described those remarks as ‘the ultimate betrayal’. The minister had also been hospitalised in Brussels in July.
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A Government spokesman said this week that Mr O’Donovan’s condition was stable, but indicated that he was likely to remain in hospital for ‘another period’.
His family said last week that he intends to return to work ‘as soon as new treatment has bedded in’.
The Government also confirmed this week that Feargal Ó Coigligh, Secretary General at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and Mr O’Donovan’s most senior civil servant, will assume temporary responsibility for the department while the minister is away from his official duties.
In a statement responding to queries, RTÉ said: ‘A second VEP proposal is currently with the department for approval, following RTÉ’s submission 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.