Now 16 roles up for grabs at RTÉ despite recruitment freeze

Positions will mainly be filled by interns on €14,178 wages

RTÉ is hiring another 16 people, including paid interns, despite the ongoing recruitment freeze at the troubled broadcaster.

Over €320,000 will be paid out to successful candidates across four roles which are currently being advertised.

However, the broadcaster insists that the positions are deemed ‘critical for business’.

Director general Kevin Bakhurst introduced a recruitment freeze in September as the station continues to haemorrhage money due to the public’s refusal to pay the television licence fee, following revelations of financial mismanagement at RTÉ.

Two months later, it was revealed the broadcaster intended to lay off approximately 400 staff.

Its six-month internship programme has 14 vacancies. Each trainee will be paid €14,178 at a combined cost of €198,492.

A permanent marketing and media executive job is also being advertised with a salary of between €34,708 and €48,437.

A temporary Learn and LMS (Learn Management System) vacancy is marketed between €41,469 to €56,163.

RTÉ’s National Union of Journalists representative Emma O’Kelly welcomed the new positions outside the recruitment freeze. However, she expressed concern for the interns who will not be offered permanent jobs at the end of their fixed-term contract.

‘We’re fully supportive of RTÉ’s internship programme, along with

‘Future prospects being curtailed’

the other roles being advertised,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail.

‘We don’t support the recruitment freeze and would like to see even more jobs being filled.

‘The internship programme is really important as it gives aspiring journalists and other young people experience in the media industry. We also welcome the fact that they’re offered a salary.

‘However, we’re concerned that their future prospects are being curtailed by RTÉ’s decision to supress 400 jobs and outsource them to private media companies.

‘This means that there will be more young people, like these interns, without secure jobs and proper entitlements and conditions. I would be concerned about what will happen to them once they come out of this internship,’ she said.

A spokesman for the broadcaster said: ‘RTÉ has confirmed that where roles are deemed critical for business, exceptions may be made to the recruitment freeze. All such cases are reviewed by the Interim Leadership Team who make final decisions.

‘RTÉ considers a range of roles and initiatives business critical in ensuring we continue to meet the needs of our audiences, while maintaining our commitment, where possible, to providing valuable access opportunities and experience to young people from diverse backgrounds.

‘There are 14 internships available in RTÉ’s 2024 programme across its radio, television and online services, in English and in Irish, and across its technology and commercial teams.

‘In partnership with Údarás na Gaeltachta, two of these interns will be based in the Gaeltacht working for Nuacht RTÉ, TG4 and Raidió na Gaeltachta. In partnership with Sport Ireland, and as part of its Women in Sport initiative, RTÉ has increased the number of our RTÉ Sport interns by two.’

The spokesman added: ‘RTÉ’s Internship Programme brings a diverse group of talented young people with new ideas, different perspectives and important skills to RTÉ, while in turn giving them valuable experience in research, production, content creation, editing, communication, administration and teamwork.’

In October, Montrose also advertised two ‘critical’ roles outside its recruitment freeze for jobs with pay between €49,000 and €66,000 per year. The roles included a streaming media engineer and a real time graphic artist.

Media Minister Catherine Martin confirmed last year that the Government’s state body financial advisers NewEra said that RTÉ needed €60million for 2023 and 2024 to stay afloat due to the decrease in licence fee revenue.

However, she said NewEra only recommended that the government grant RTÉ €40million in a bailout, and the rest would have to be recouped through cost-cutting.