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

Yeah. My point is if the Pally crowd had actually heard of this fella, there'd be hell to pay for both Lyric FM and the National Concert Hall and we wouldn't have heard from that musician at all.

Like the proposed football match, Eurovision, certain pop artists - the noise about it would be spectacular.

Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/rte-throwing-away-landmark-programmes-says-staff-member-amid-concerns-over-broadcasters-future/a2021258350.html

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/03/03/growth-of-disinformation-has-made-rte-role-and-funding-vital-says-siptu/

https://www.thesun.ie/money/16622278/rte-staffers-late-late-show-fair-city-outsourcing-plan/

They are not happy, and are on a mission. Use of phares that were used over the last few week in the media in relation to RTÉ E.G. "hollowing out".

National Lottery programming in the next fortnight will not be happening in house anymore.

Again we never had a real answer to why this programme cost so much money.

I wonder did any of them notice the Children's Department close a decade ago, or that RTÉ axed RTÉ News on 2 and RTÉ Late Night and morning news bulletins on RTÉ ONE, or that they were axed on RTÉ 2FM?

Part of what we were discussing today was for the Late Late Show, if there is a star in town on a Wednesday what happens is the studio will get fired up, crews will come in, the audience can be pulled together from staff and even students from UCD love coming over. An independent, I’m not sure how they would do that maybe if they’re in a warehouse setup on the outskirts of Dublin somewhere. So that would be a loss to the Irish public

This is a new thing in RTÉ on brought in with the advent of Patrick Keilty (yes previous hosts have done this but only sporadically).

He said RTÉ will be legally obliged to spend 25pc of its public funding on productions from the independent sector. “But it doesn’t state that we need to wind down what we do in Donnybrook,” he said. “We should be building on what we have rather than using that 25pc as an excuse to just basically throw away our programming.”

I would agree with him here, Managements plan is to basically move Fair City and TLLS over to the indepenent sector to meet their targets, this doesn't increase programming, it just moves existing programming to a different producers.

Previously, an RTÉ spokesperson said it acknowledged the Siptu ballot result.

I wish newspapers would name the spokeperson, they named both the staff member and the SIPTU person, why do company spokepeople get to hide?

There's a bang of MAGA from some of these RTE SIPTU people. It's supposed to happen to someone else.

There was not much of an outcry from "the brothers" when management were going after "less important" stuff on the fringes of the organisation - childrens, some late news bulletins, the threat to shut/move Lyric FM in 2018.

It's dawning on them finally that they really are going after things in the heart of the company - the powerbase of the unions - television facilities. Cheered on by a Minister for Communications (like him or not) who believes RTE management are not going far or fast enough.

Time might be up for "Mick" and "Pat", who pull a cable across a studio floor 3 times in an 8 hour shift - although, if they choose to take a Voluntary Redundancy package, can be back working for an independent outfit making something for RTE the following week if they wish.

We had the revelations from the Secret RTE Producer on Twitter, a number of years back, of associates of these guys from within the company being slid quietly into Camera Operator jobs and other instances of nepotism.

Some of these lads and their unions have brought this on themselves.

Ah for old days of the rte canteen ...many familiar faces 🤔

@Dublin Calling or is it a works canteen at all ,maybe a large hotel in Dublin somewhere🤔 anyways interesting seeing all the rte…fair city heads but sadly no Joe Duffy to be seen

Joe would have only being starting out as a reporter on Radio, I think its not until the mid-90s that himself and Gareth O'Callaghan are filing in for Gay Byrne.

That check up is from around 1989 / 1990

1991 as it says on the video :)

Any word on bringing in the Comptroller and auditor general?

True, but it shows how media companies are paying. It's crazy money that could be spend across their services.

Back to RTÉ's top ten earners.

I wanted to make a correction. Brian Dobson was actually paid 194K in 2024, not 150K as I had suggested, I am not sure where I got the 150K for 2024. He exited RTÉ at the beginning of May that year, now this might include a lump sum from his pension also, I am not sure if that would be included?

I see Daithi O Se was very busy this week. Hosting Monday's edition of Today with a replacement presenter (where was Sinead Kennedy?) while then heading to Dublin to host the Parade for RTÉ ONE, and back to Cork? no you couldn't over work Mr O Se, Maura was without her "tv husband" on Wednesday - Friday. As you know Friday's edition is pre-recorded on Thursday.

Nice work if you can get it!