RTÉ criticised over 'privatisation' of Fair City and Late Late Show

Richard Boyd Barrett speaking at Leaders' Questions this afternoon.

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT-Solidarity TD Richard Boyd Barrett has lashed out at Tánaiste Micheál Martin and RTÉ over “hundreds” of job losses within the national broadcaster, including popular soap Fair City.

Boyd Barrett also criticised the potential outsourcing of Fair City and The Late Late Show to independent production companies, describing it as the “privatisation” of the national broadcaster.

On Tuesday, RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst announced that the broadcaster will be cutting more than 400 jobs over the next five years as part of a plan to secure a €20 million bailout from the government.

Bakhurst told a staff meeting in Montrose on the same afternoon that the production of The Late Late Show and Fair City would be moved off site.

Speaking today during Leaders’ Questions, Boyd Barrett called upon the Tánaiste to intervene “to protect the jobs of ordinary workers” and “to safeguard the future of public service broadcasting for our society”.

Bakhurst told RTÉ’s DriveTime programme that both programmes were made in buildings that required maintenence, and said that oursourcing the shows to have them made by independent companies is an “option”.

In the Daíl today, Boyd Barrett criticised RTÉ’s intention to outsource more of its programming. He also took aim at the “tiny group of people at the top of the organisation” that were at the centre of the scandal RTÉ found itself in last summer.

“The net result of that scandal, of the bad behaviour and excessive pay to a tiny group of people we learn, is the outsourcing and privatisation of the two flagship programmes of RTÉ, Fair City and The Late Late Show,” he said.

He stated that it was unfair that people such as “technical workers, costume workers, makeup workers, staging, editing, camera, scripting, floor managers, people on modest salaries” within the organisation were to potentially lose their jobs to the private sector.

“Do you see the government is responsible for not reining in the excess of the obscene salaries that everyone knew about the top of RTÉ?” he asked Martin.

Earlier in Leaders’ Questions, the Tánaiste and Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin descended into a shouting match over the issue of affordable homes in Coolock in Dublin 17.

Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl threatened to suspend the house over the row.