Kevin Bakhurst moves to assure staff RTÉ expansion plan for Cork still in place

RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has moved to reassure staff that plans for expanded production in Cork remain in place, after The Echo reported that co-location talks with Cork City Council had broken down.

The State broadcaster had been in discussions with the council about the possibility of leasing the upstairs portion of the Counting House complex on South Main St, which the council recently purchased.

Last year, Mr Bakhurst told a gathering of independent producers that RTÉ Cork planned to move from its Fr Mathew St home to a new, central location by 2027, with an increase to its current staff of approximately 50.

The Fr Mathew St premises is three decades old, and considered no longer fit for purpose.

The Counting House was one of a number of city centre premises subsequently looked at by RTÉ as a new home for its Cork operations, but lengthy negotiations with the council broke down recently.

In a communication issued to RTÉ staff, Mr Bakhurst referred to staff fears that, more than two years after he had promised a change of premises, “plans to invest further in production in Cork may have fallen through”.

Wide of the mark

“These suggestions are wide of the mark,” he said, adding that RTÉ continues to consider its options in Cork.

“In fact, I was in Cork yesterday with colleagues looking at possible premises.

“As I have said to our colleagues in our Cork studios, this is a significant move for the future of RTÉ, and it is important that we get the right premises."

In RTÉ’s five-year 2025-2029 strategy, the broadcaster committed to investing in a new, expanded production centre in Cork, and in 2024 it said that facility would be central to increasing the broadcaster’s regionally produced programming.

Mr Bakhurst said that RTÉ was “only halfway through the second year of our five-year strategy”.

He said that while some projects could be delivered in a shorter timeframe, others, such as finding the right premises for RTÉ Cork, would take longer.

“We are more focused on making the right decision, rather than a quick one,” he said. “RTÉ Cork remains a central part of our five-year strategy, so there is no change to that commitment, nor will there be.”

He repeated his earlier statement that when there was a material update, it would be shared with RTÉ staff in the first instance, before then being communicated to the wider public.