RTÉ will struggle to secure the 400 redundancies the national broadcaster has promised to deliver as part of its taxpayer-funded reform plan, station insiders said this weekend.
It comes after director general Kevin Bakhurst told an Oireachtas Committee hearing last week that 328 employees had applied for the scheme.
However, sources said this figure actually represents expressions of interest and not actual applications.
RTÉ's €725m bailout is dependent on the broadcaster securing at least 400 redundancies over the next three years.
However, a senior source said these initial expressions of interest in the new voluntary exit programme will be 'difficult to convert to the loss of 400 roles at the station by 2028'.
They said claims 328 people have formally applied for the voluntary redundancy scheme are misleading.
The source told the MoS: 'Let's be clear, these are not actual applications. These are people who are looking to see what the redundancies would mean for them. Many of them, as is the case with all redundancy schemes, will look at the figures and see that it doesn't work for them.
'People who have mortgages, people who have children to raise and, most importantly, people who will find it difficult to get work elsewhere.
'Inevitably, when many of those people go back and look at the figures and see what they will actually get, they will be a huge drop off, just like there was in the 2017 and 2021 schemes.' The source added that, given 'the current low morale in RTÉ you would have expected over 500 people to express an interest in getting out of the place'.
Another senior RTÉ source noted the fact that every redundancy will require that person's role to be eradicated which will make the process especially hard.
In 2017, when RTÉ was seeking between 250 and 300 redundancies, 235 employees submitted applications to exit, but only 128 of these were deemed to be suitable.
In the last redundancy scheme in 2021, which required the role had to be 'fully suppressed' after the employee left, there were 177 applicants.
However, Montrose bosses could only offer exit packages to 26 of these, a less than 15% success rate. The MoS previously reported the RTÉ board discussed compulsory redundancies in the light of a low uptake of these previous redundancy schemes. A spokeswoman said this week: 'The reference in the McCann Fitzgerald report relates to a Board meeting in October 2018. The discussion was about the 2017 VEP (Voluntary Exit Programme) only and does not relate to the last two VEP schemes.
'Please note also that there are no members of the 2018 RTÉ Board still serving on the current RTÉ Board, and the current RTÉ Board has never discussed involuntary redundancies.'
The current redundancy scheme is open to RTÉ employees who will have completed at least two years' continuous service on the date their employment ceases.
In an email to staff, Kevin said applications will be approved where 'it is confirmed that the role can be suppressed or that equivalent savings can be made by suppressing an alternative post and/ or redeploying an employee into that role'.
The exit programme comprises a Voluntary Severance (VS) and Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) scheme.
Montrose employees with between two to five years' service will be entitled to four weeks' pay per year of service. Those with five to 10 years' experience will qualify for five weeks per year, while staff members with more than 10 years' service will receive six weeks' pay per year. They will not qualify for any further redundancy and payouts will be capped at €300,000. Senior management are not eligible to join the scheme.
The MoS understands that applications will be first assessed by line managers and then referred to HR and divisional heads, some of whom are members of RTÉ's Executive Board, who will then make a final decision.
It has been reported that Media Minister Patrick O'Donovan wants the redundancy programme to be completed by the end of 2027. If this is not achieved, the level of Government support for the final two years of RTÉ's five-year strategy could be impacted.
In response, RTÉ denied Mr Bakhurst was misleading when he told the Oireachtas committee the redundancy scheme received 328 'applications'. A spokesman said: 'Our statement regarding the VEP is availabl (it) states that applications are currently being reviewed and that applicants can choose to accept or decline an offer of VS or VER.'
