‘UN-FAIR RTE’ INSISTS SOAP SUMMER SHOW WILL GO ON

Production halting in July & August

RTE has confirmed Fair City will continue to air throughout the summer despite production halting on the soap in July and August.

It comes as an Oireachtas Committee was told the soap’s actors feel like “second-class citizens” and their show is an “easy target” when savings are needed.

Unions representing workers across the national broadcaster appeared at the Oireachtas Media Committee yesterday to discuss governance and culture issues.

A proportion of the committee hearing focused on “bogus self-employment”.

The Department of Social Protection is investigating whether or not 695 RTE workers should have been classified as self-employed. This included some Fair City actors.

Teresa Hannick from Siptu told the Committee that actors on the soap have “only recently become RTE employees” but they “do not have a contract of indefinite duration, despite some of them being on the drama for over 20 years”.

Ms Hannick also said people working on the soap have been informed that there will be “no filming in July and August of this year”. She said: “This is happening so that management can use the technical staff to cover the 2024 European Football Championship, the Paris Olympic Games, and the GAA Championship, all of which require huge resources. This is a new development that has never happened previously, even though RTE has broadcasted these major sporting events before.

“The national broadcaster has a duty, under its public service broadcasting remit, to produce drama like Fair City.”

A spokeswoman for RTE confirmed to the Irish Mirror Fair City will continue to run throughout the summer.

She said: “Fair City reduced on air from four to three episodes a week from January 2024 to allow for a pause

in production in July and August.”