Cork's ‘crumbling’ RTÉ studios at centre of fears over One Albert Quay move
RTÉ has had a presence in Cork since 1927. Its studios on Fr Mathew Street were opened in 1995 and were put briefly on the market in 2024. Picture: Denis Minihane.
RTÉ staff in Cork are said to be “in a state of shock” and fearful that a €20m funding cut to the State broadcaster could jeopardise plans to move from “crumbling” premises to a new facility at One Albert Quay.
Media minister Patrick O’Donovan announced on Wednesday that RTÉ would receive €240m in 2027, €20m less than the €260m that had been agreed for the year as part of its multi-annual €848m funding deal.
The minister said the reduction was due to his dissatisfaction with the pace of reform at RTÉ, saying he was “not happy that we have seen sufficient progress in delivering the smaller, more agile organisation”.
However, RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst strongly rejected the suggestion that reform had been too slow, saying the broadcaster had implemented almost all of the cuts demanded of it.
He said the “late stage” funding reduction had not been anticipated and would “inevitably impact on our ability to deliver our five-year strategy”.
The funding row has caused considerable unhappiness across the State broadcaster, not least among staff in Cork who fear it could affect plans to leave the existing Fr Mathew Street facility.
Last month, Mr Bakhurst told RTÉ’s Cork workforce of more than 50 people that it had “sourced a property on the ground floor of One Albert Quay in Cork City” and was in negotiations with the property owner.
The existing Fr Mathew Street facility, which opened more than 30 years ago, is regarded as obsolete and unsuited to modern production requirements.
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Trevor Keegan, chair of the National Union of Journalists sub-branch at RTÉ, said staff had “serious concerns” about whether the move would now go ahead.
“The Cork facility at the moment is far from suitable, it is literally crumbling around the staff and it just doesn’t suit the high-turnover production that you have for the likes of the Today show,” he said.
“And Today is so successful, there was talk of moving to a year-round production of it, and I’m sure those planned moves now have question marks over them, which is not ideal.”
RTÉ has had a presence in Cork since 1927. Its studios on Fr Mathew Street were opened in 1995 and were put briefly on the market in 2024. At the time, the building was valued at around €2m.
In RTÉ's five-year strategy for 2025-2029, the broadcaster committed to investing in a new, expanded production centre in Cork.
Mr O’Donovan has also said RTÉ had sought to reduce staff by 20% between 2025 and 2029, and that issues around voluntary redundancies at RTÉ had been “well documented” and “obviously, we would hope that that would be able to be advanced”.
However, he also indicated that his decision had been influenced by a reduction in funding to his department by public expenditure minister Jack Chambers.
A Cork member of the Public Accounts Committee has described the dispute between Mr O’Donovan and RTÉ as “unedifying”.
Fianna Fáil TD for Cork South Central Seámus McGrath said there had been “mixed messages” about the reasons for the funding cut.
“This public dispute between our public service broadcaster and the minister is unedifying. It’s not how business should be done,” Mr McGrath said.
“As a member of PAC, we have decided to invite RTÉ and the department to come before us to bottom out exactly what the issues are as there seems to be mixed messages about the reasons for such a cut to the RTÉ funding,” he said.
The Public Accounts Committee said on Thursday that it will ask RTÉ and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport to appear before it in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Mr Bakhurst and RTÉ chairman Terence O’Rourke met with Mr O’Donovan on Thursday afternoon.
The meeting lasted just over an hour and was described by Mr Bakhurst as “very positive” and “extremely constructive”.
“We’ve agreed that we’re going to carry on working with [Mr O’Donovan’s] officials to try and find a resolution,” he said.
Mr Bakhurst said he would not be answering further questions and described the situation as “delicate enough”.
Asked whether RTÉ would receive its full funding for 2027, Mr Bakhurst said he did not know, but said he “absolutely had confidence in Mr O’Donovan as minister”.
An RTÉ spokesperson said the broadcaster would not be making a comment at this time.
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