TEILIFIS na Gaeilge plans to broadcast an hour of European news in English, which will be edited in France, according to the station's ceannasai or head, Mr Cathal Goan.
The news will be broadcast from Mondays to Fridays between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. It will be supplied by Euronews in Lyon on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union, and draw on material available to the EBU from different European broadcasters.
The Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Mr Eoin Ronayne, said the development "came as a surprise" to the NUJ. He would seek further information from TnaG about the news service but said RTE already rebroadcast EBU material.
Mr Ronayne added that separate negotiations about TnaG's news output in Irish - to be supplied by RTE - had reached an impasse. He is "worried we are heading into a serious stand off" unless there is "substantial movement" from RTE on issues related to pay and conditions.
TnaG's core broadcasts in Irish are due to take place in two separate sections: children's programming from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and family or adult viewing from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The European news segment will fill half of the two hour gap in between; it is understood that low cost "infotainment" programming about technological developments will fill the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. slot.
According to Mr Goan, discussions between RTE and the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht about the European news are at an advanced stage. The project has also been approved by Comhairle Theilifis na Gaeilge, the advisory committee set up by RTE to oversee arrangements for the new station.
"It's an opportunity to have a daily look at European news: the headlines of the day but also background stories which quite often might not reach the Irish audience through the existing services. It provides an additional wide ranging news service on a number of European topics," he said.
"RTE will also be broadcasting a similar service in the early morning." The service will be available to TnaG free of charge for an initial trial period. "Nothing that TnaG is doing or negotiating is at any cost to the money which is being provided for its core schedule," Mr Goan added.
He confirmed RTE was talking to the Department about the provision of live Oireachtas broadcasts during the day, "on an experimental basis" on TnaG.
It is understood that these discussions centre around the broadcasting of the Order of Business and Question Time in the Dail, segments of the daily Oireachtas proceedings which are considered most likely to arouse public and media interest.
Other possibilities include an hour of tele shopping in the morning and late night broadcasts from ARTE, the FrancoGerman arts and culture channel.
An application for airtime from Unitas 2000, a Catholic broadcasting organisation, has made little progress. TnaG's management is understood to be unenthusiastic about programming which might be perceived as sectarian or reinforce old stereotypes of Irish speakers.