Phased departure for RTÉ staff who took redundancy

RTÉ employees who have been accepted on to the latest round of early retirement and voluntary redundancy packages at the station are leaving on a phased basis.

RTÉ management has issued letters to some of the 250 staff who applied for the latest package — for which the cutoff point was June — over the past four weeks.

Staff remain under threat of further pay cuts of 4% if savings of €25m cannot be found by the end of this year.

It is understood that some of those who have been approved to leave will retire by the end of next month, with more following in October.

The national broadcaster had been looking for 200 people to apply but it was oversubscribed by up to 50 people. Final numbers of those leaving in the latest round are still being correlated by the broadcaster. In similar packages, staff left on a phased basis.

High-profile names to have left include former news anchorwoman Anne Doyle, Nationwide editor Michael Ryan, and West editor Jim Fahy. Speculation is rife that chief news reporter Charlie Bird is considering taking the latest package.

In a statement an RTÉ spokesperson said: “RTÉ’s early retirement and redundancy/voluntary severance facility are still in process, and is in the midst of going through applications, therefore it is not possible to provide overall numbers.

“The director general [Noel Curran], in March, outlined that cost-cutting measures would include a reduction in regional spend.

“However, no decisions with respect to RTÉ’s regional studios have yet been made.”