Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121142193#Comment_121142193

It's not just O'Keefe that got an exit package, Coveney did too.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121156709#Comment_121156709

Why should he get an exit package, was he fired from his position? Did he get severance? If he resigned would he have any entitlements? He'd still have his pension.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158483#Comment_121158483

All I know is Coveney got a pay off. I don't know much more than that.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121167113#Comment_121167113

Payoff for being a failure - RTE all over

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121167113#Comment_121167113

Yeah, that is what I am hearing too. I assume this means he was fired and got severance. Also hearing O'Leary was given something. These are not resignations.

This would have been my press release : -

Ms. O'Leary and Mr. Coveney have been retained as staff purely because we'd have to pay them severance and we are unwilling to do that.

Ms. O'Leary will take on the interim role of Senior Executive for the Distribution of Beachwear in the Wardrobe Department, until her retirement. We wish her well in her retirement.

Mr Coveney is now Senior Executive for the Protection of noncritical Intellectual Property and Assets. His office is close to the storage area for set for the Toy Show the Musical, his role will be to make sure no one ever uses it or sees it again. We wish him the best in his new role, there is always a door open to him, we wish him well on finding the door and closing it on the way out.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121167331#Comment_121167331

I am attending an event later today and part of the show will be about RTE, so anyone attending can expect more revelations about this and more.

The event I mention is

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/tortoise-shack-live-tickets-698299581847?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121167349#Comment_121167349

Would it be worth it? I was up in Dublin on Tuesday.

I listen to their RTÉ podcast and to me it was the same old same old.

I am grateful that Sit down and be counted was published to Amazon but its not the be all and end all. I felt is was 3 RTÉ producers complaining about their own mistreatment from Politics, management and from the public.

The on the one hand bemoan the commercial side of RTÉ and then state we are too small to find good people to go on the TV.

In the podcast they basically give RTÉ an excuse for their mismanagement of the company and that excuse is the wining and dining of advertisers and the commercial arm of RTÉ along with the lack of funding coming from the license fee.

IMO both of these things are just signs of how RTÉ are unable to run an organization rather than a cause of the problems that the face.

Geraldine O'Leary basically stated that if she had not done what she did RTÉ would not have to the sponsorship that they receive, while Dee Forbes continually said the license fee was broken.

This is just people agreeing with the incompentance at RTÉ.

skimpydoo

It’s going to be well worth it. One of the guys behind tortoise shack is the guy who broke the RTE and bogus payments. This is going to cost RTE a lot of money.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121169343#Comment_121169343

Do you have a link with any of the speakers? and topics to be discussed?

skimpydoo

Two of the speakers are well known ex RTE employees but no names mentioned. Aoife Grace Moore and also Emmet Kirwan are speaking. That’s all I know bar what the link I sent you said.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121169456#Comment_121169456

Dee Frobes and Breada O'Keffee 😂

I am not convinced about going.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121169526#Comment_121169526

That’s fine. I can fill you in later with a brief synopsis of what happened.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158483#Comment_121158483

You do not think that these guys just resign. It's usually a negotiated settlement, minimum wound be the outstanding part of the contract. If it was a recurring contract ( where it was rolled over a number of times) then a decent redundancy payment will come into play.

Nobody walks away from jobs like this just because of public opinion

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121169526#Comment_121169526

The event was great, and the two ex RTE employees at the event were Keith Walsh ex 2FM breakfast show jock and Angie Mezzetti ex RTE newsreader.

RTE is seriously fucked, they have already settled 2 or 3 bogus employment claims for €1.8M with many more to come on top of the fines they will have to pay plus they owe banks between €80-€90M.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121171115#Comment_121171115

The employment issue is going way back in RTÉ, this is why I don't really under stand why Eiemer Cusack is still on the leadship team, she'd been in and out of the oirechtas to say she was working on a range of employment issues within RTÉ, which still exists, she is either actively working on this issue, on top of the bogus pay, but their should be at this stage some clear outcome or mission statement from RTÉ at this point.

Questions I would have asked Angie Mazzetti (I'd know her more as a former Continuity announcer, but later on she did news bulletins). What was her pay? What kind of holidays did she have while in RTÉ? and in other words why do RTÉ take a holiday in June, July and August.

For Keith Walsh .... Where you a contractor or an employee? What is his view on 2FM and where it is going? and Does he thinks it deserves the licence fee? What was his contract like and what kind of money was he getting?

I can't image any one in RTÉ or outside of RTÉ explaining the good side of the employment contracts at the broadcaster.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121171962#Comment_121171962

Check your inbox.

political analyst

There's a Late Late Show country music special next week. But I thought RTÉ was moving on from the Tubs era.

RabbleRouser2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121174897#Comment_121174897

It'll be pre-recorded too. As part of PK's contract with RTE.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121175038#Comment_121175038

How do you know?

RabbleRouser2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121177028#Comment_121177028

That was mentioned as part of his contract- when the whole Noel Kelly/ RTE payments scandal was revealed. Kielty revealed his contract, his salary, and that 3 shows would be pre-recorded, and that he'd be doing 3 less shows than Tubridy.

I can't find the article, but I'm sure you'll find it with a bit of googling.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121179657#Comment_121179657

The show for at Christmas show ( not the toy show) is going to be pre recorded as well I think

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121174897#Comment_121174897

I'd say they are slightly worried about audience numbers, they reason they introduced these specials.

RoTelly

I miss certain posters on this thread that have disappeared after years of arguing that we need to take a look at what we really want from Public Service Broadcasting.

Have they been scuppered, they've not commented on RTÉ in either the new thread or this.

Surely we now know that RTÉ is rotten to the core and its time for it to be split up.

RoTelly

Dee Forbes 2024 Strategy still going through the motions AERTEL to finish on 12th Oct 2023.

https://about.rte.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/RT%C3%89-2024-Web.pdf

So this was the revised stragey so expect or don't the other changes : -

Evolve

• We will move RTE's biggest sporting moments to RTE One
• We will increase investment in live TV moments and big events (e.g. RTE on Climate, Late Late Show Specials)
• We will launch a kids on-demand and digital strategy
• We will evolve the user experience of many of our digital services through mandatory sign in and personalisation

Enhance

• We will enhance our content offering or, RTE Player, with longer windows, improving and investing in the technology, features and functionality
• We will develop our live and on-demand RTE Player product, building towards a more integrated service offering video and audio
• We will create new visualized radio studios
• We will deliver podcasts for a wide variety tastes and interests
• We will offer new RTE experiences and events - music, sport, lifestyle, culture, politics
• We will increase the hours of quality Irish drama

Modify

• The RTE Guide is for sale
• RTE will close its current studio in Limerick in 2020; production of RTE lyric- fm will move to Cork and Dublin
• RTE will continue to provide a mid-west news service in Limerick
• We will close the digital Audio Broadcast network, as well as RTE's digital radio(RTE 2XM, RTE Pulse, RTE Gold, RTEjr Radio & RTE Radio 1 Extra)
• RTE Aertel will cease
• The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will transfer to The National Concert Hall
• We will develop a new integrated media centre in Donnybrook , investing in new digital infrastructure

Reduce

• We need to reduce projected costs by 60 million over three years (2020-2023).
• in addition to the reduction of 23% delivered between 2008 and 2018
• We need to reduce the foes paid to our top contracted on-air personalities , by15%, in addition, to the 30+% cuts as agreed in previous years
• We need to reduce staff costs we will consult with staff and unions 011 a number of initiatives, to including pay freeze, tiered pay reductions, review of benefits, and work practice reforms
• The Executive Board will take a 10% reduction in pay; the Board of RTE will waive its fees
• We need to achieve a staff headcount reduction of c. 200 in 2020

of the 22 I have bolded those that they achieved, you will note the last one was temporary.

This was published in 2019 of the 5 they achieved, 2 required government action AERTEL and the NSO, and one has been reversed. That's the second last one on the list.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121184867#Comment_121184867

Just managementspeak from a bunch of overpaid mediocrities. Had RTE been properly run most of them would not have been in their jobs and certainly not at the salaries they were given.

Didn't Forbes cut kids broadcasting?

As for RTE Player, that's got to be a joke, right?

Anyone looked at the GDPR ramifications of this: "We will evolve the user experience of many of our digital services through mandatory sign in and personalisation"?

Forbes doesn't seem to have been a success. Without the licence fee and repeated bailouts, RTE would not have survived. Now, it wants a 56 million Euro bailout to keep on failing.

Regards...jmcc

RoTelly

Didn't Forbes cut kids broadcasting?

She could always argue her predecessors cut children's programming in 2016, though she continued in 2017.

Gen.Zhukov

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121184305#Comment_121184305

Ah no he's still around alright. Kept the head down for 10 weeks or so but has reemerged and is popping up in all the old places...Radio/TV where RTE and everyone that appears on RTE are fantastic - Avoids this and the RT thread though, too much 'blood in the water' to join in here. Thing is, we were all guessing (educated and ultimately vindicated) at the state of the place, but they were so much closer to the action

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121186875#Comment_121186875

Funny the day before all this happened I posted to see, how people on the fence or in defense of RTÉ felt about Dee Forbes tenure as she leaves. It's a pity I didn't post it a week sooner, but sure.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854106#Comment_120854106

So SF have finally come to heed my wisdom

https://www.businesspost.ie/news/mary-lou-mcdonald-direct-exchequer-funding-for-rte-should-replace-the-licence-fee/

I reckon this will nudge the government to get their own plans into gear, as kicking the issue into the long grass yet again will surely lead to the adoption of this model, which M Martin in particular seems dead against, if SF are leading the next government

https://www.businesspost.ie/news/micheal-martin-expresses-genuine-concern-over-potential-exchequer-funding-of-rte/

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121195864#Comment_121195864

SF don't give a shoite as long as it's popular.

Thankfully MM is more responsible.