The Stage

Irish national broadcaster RTE could be privatised

Published Monday 26 July 2010 at 10:54 by Anthony Garvey

RTE, the Irish national broadcaster, has been dealt a double blow by two unconnected events - director general Cathal Goan has announced he is stepping down and the station has been put on a list of state companies to be considered for privatisation.

The decision of 56-year-old Goan to quit his €320,000-a-year post after just one term has come as a surprise, as he had started his broadcasting career with the station and was considered “a lifer”. No reason was given for his refusal of a second term, nor has he spoken of his plans. He has agreed to stay on until a successor is chosen.

The appointment of Goan, a programme maker, to the top job had been widely welcomed and RTE chairman Tom Savage, in a tribute, described him as a man with ” a unique understanding of the special role that RTE has in Irish cultural life”. Communications minister Eamon Ryan said he had made “a genuine contribution to the arts in Ireland”.

During his seven-year term he had also presided over the financial restructuring of RTE, cutting costs and jobs to reduce the station’s €68 million budget deficit to less than €20 million. Internal candidates are being tipped to succeed him when the job is advertised in the coming weeks. The person chosen will have the immediate task of overseeing an ambitious redevelopment of the station’s Dublin campus, including the construction of a €350 million high-definition digital TV and radio studio.

Meanwhile, uncertainty surrounds the future status of the national broadcaster, currently funded through a combination of licence fee and advertising, as a result of its inclusion on the list of state companies to be considered for possible privatisation. The aim is to ease the national debt by selling them.

A special review group has been appointed to examine the companies listed and report back to government by the end of the year. What will alarm RTE is that the group is headed by economist Colm McCarthy, the man who recommended the arts council be emasculated and the arts ministry scrapped to reduce state spending.