RTÉ director general Collins to retire early

RTÉ director general Bob Collins is to retire seven months ahead of schedule. Mr Collins was due to finish his seven-year term next April. However, he announced yesterday that he would be leaving the organisation in October.

RTÉ Authority chairman Paddy Wright said he would regret Mr Collins’ departure.

“I would like to recognise that the authority, the organisation and all committed to Irish public service broadcasting are in his debt,” he said.

Although Mr Collins’ departure announcement was sudden, it was not unexpected. Staff at RTÉ said that it was known that Mr Collins would not seek a second term, so the resignation was not even a talking point at the Donnybrook headquarters yesterday.

The post of director general is known as the toughest job in television and since his appointment in 1997, Mr Collins has had to preside over redundancies, financial losses and new competition from TV3 and Sky.

His most significant achievement was to secure a €43 licence fee increase from the Government, the biggest in over a decade.

“He’s left the station in much better shape than he found it. The re-organisation of news and current affairs appears to be working well and it is internationally recognised that RTÉ’s coverage of the recent Gulf war was one of the best of any European station,” said John Horgan, Professor of Journalism at Dublin City University.

Mr Collins was born in Killarney, County Kerry but grew up in Adare, County Limerick.

He joined RTÉ in 1975 as secretary to the RTÉ Authority. Since then he has served in variety of positions, including director of television programmes and director of corporate affairs, before being appointed director general in 1997.

RTÉ has announced that the search for his successor will begin immediately. Several internal candidates are likely to apply for the job, which has a salary of at least €180,000.

Those mentioned already include Cathal Goan, the director of television and former head of TG4, Ed Mulhall, the director of news and Helen Shaw, the former director of RTÉ Radio who is completing an international fellowship at Harvard University in Boston.

Former RTÉ Authority chairperson Farrel Corcoran said the station would have to choose between appointing an internal candidate with a strong knowledge of the RTÉ organisation or bringing in new blood from outside.