Kevin Bakhurst says sale of RTÉ’s Dublin 4 Montrose site is on the table

RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst. File Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

RTÉ’s Dublin 4 Montrose site is currently being professionally evaluated with Director General Kevin Bakhurst saying its sale is on the table.

Some TDs and senators estimated the value of the site at north of €500m with Kevin Bakhurst saying he is “pulling every lever” he can in an effort to cut costs.

Speaking at an Oireachtas media committee meeting, Director General Kevin Bakhurst said the broadcaster is trying to leverage everything it can.

Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon said there is no question that RTÉ is sitting on one of the most valuable landbanks in the country and asked, given its precarious financial situation, if it would consider moving.

Mr Bakhurst said the broadcaster is trying to leverage everything it can.

“One of the things we are considering focusing on is about moving more staff and production out of Dublin and we’re totally focused on what value we can get from the site," he said. 

Mr Bakhurst said the “financial crisis” has forced the broadcaster to consider how best to stop spending cash this year, including a recruitment freeze “to reduce the headcount in the short-term”.

The Oireachtas media committee heard the freeze will continue until the end of the year while cuts on discretionary spending will include outside and live broadcasting, and pausing its investment in digital products such as the RTÉ player despite the digital future of the broadcaster being “critical” as well as.

He said although he must make tough decisions, he will do everything in his power to avoid compulsory redundancies.

The committee also heard that a “handful” of RTÉ top 100 earners objected to having their names and salary details published.

Separately, although saying there is a moral case for Ryan Tubridy to repay €150,000, Mr Bakhurst said there are no legal tools available to recoup the payments but “there is a moral case to pay it back”.

“We don’t have a legal mechanism to get it back because it was agreed by RTÉ but I think there is a moral case there,” he said before adding: “Ryan doesn’t have a source of income at the moment.”

Mr Bakhurst said there has been correspondence between RTÉ and Mr Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly since contract talks broke down.

He said there has been legal correspondence regarding the ending of Mr Tubridy’s contract and added that there is no money outstanding to Mr Tubridy, “as far as we’re concerned”.