RTÉ €20m funding cut and Ger Gilroy podcast appointment dominate committee hearing

LAST UPDATE | 34 mins ago

RTÉ BOSS KEVIN Bakhurst said he was only told the national broadcaster’s budget would be cut three hours before Budget 2027 was announced. 

His appearance, along with other executives, before the Oireachtas Media Committee comes after Media Minister Patrick O’Donovan cut RTÉ’s budget by €20 million as part of Budget 2027, citing concerns over the pace of reforms.

The decision sparked uproar, with the RTÉ Director General saying the cut “came as a shock”. 

However, speaking last week, Bakhurst said he is confident that the €20 million shortfall will still be secured.

Bakhurst told committee members today that reforms are ongoing at the broadcaster and that the “work of transformation is far from over”.

RTÉ is a dual-funded public service organisation and is dependent on both public funding and commercial income.

For 2026, it is forecast to receive €185.2 million in funding from the licence fee and €54.8 million in direct government funding. In addition to this it receives commercial income via advertising.

Informed of cut three hours before budget announcement

Asked about the sequence of events around the funding cut revelation, RTÉ chairman Terence O’Rourke expressed their shock, anger and surprise at a phone call from officials at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

Bakhurst was asked when he discovered that funding would be cut, and he replied: “Three hours before the budget.”

O’Rourke told the committee he had “expected” the funding to be honoured. 

Bakhurst said:

I just think when you have an agreement in black and white, we will honour our side, and I’d hope the other side would be honoured too.

Deputy RTÉ Director-General Adrian Lynch said department representatives meet with RTÉ officials every six weeks to discuss reform.

Bakhurst said there was no mention of funding being cut in meetings, nor were there any concerns raised about the pace of reforms during the meetings before the budget.

The culture department’s Secretary-General Feargal Ó Coigligh said: “It was not the minister’s proposal to cut the funding of RTÉ. That’s very clear from the budget discussions.”

He later rowed back on the comment and said it was “not the minister’s preference” to cut funding.

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Asked how it ended up being cut, he replied: “Because that’s the total quantum of money that was available to the department at the end of the government discussions.

He said the minister received a total allocation for the department which fell short of “what was desired and what the minister sought”.

“At the weekend of the budget, when those decisions were being finalised, he had to make very difficult decisions as to how those resources were to be distributed across the full range of departmental functions and among our agencies,” said the secretary general.

He told the committee the minister was concerned about the pace of reform, and in particular, the reduction in staff members. RTÉ executives told the committee that they are confident they will meet their redundancy target. 

Bakhurst said there will be no mandatory redundancies to cut RTÉ staff.

Social Democrat TD Sinéad Gibney asked whether mandatory redundancies will be in its reform process.

“Not while I’m in this job, no,” he replied.

Ger Gilroy appointment

Aside from RTÉ funding, the committee hearing today also focused on the recruitment of ex-Newstalk host Ger Gilroy. 

Fine Gael Senator Evanne Ní Chulinn had a number of questions about Ger Gilroy’s appointment and whether the RTÉ sports department was consulted. 

Lynch told the committee that RTÉ sports department “were actually not happy with the appointment of Ger Gilory because of comments he made about RTÉ Sports in the past”.

Ni Chuillinn said it is “not acceptable” that there were no female voices on the sport podcast hosted by Gilroy in its first two weeks, which was something RTÉ Director of Audio Patricia Monahan said she had raised also.

“That’s something that they’re working to address, and absolutely it is incredibly important that there’s proper female representation on the podcast,” she added. 

“It’s 2026, like we were having this conversation 20 years ago,” said the senator. 

Bakhurst said it could be possible that Gilroy might appear in the top 20 list of earners at RTÉ, but the executives would not confirm his salary to the committee today. 

With reporting by Press Association