As a TV company, RTÉ is blessed with in-house expertise to call upon when management decides to shoot an advertising campaign, because these things can be horrendously expensive.
So naturally, when the Morkeshing and Commorcial hotshots in Montrose decided to film a slick new promo for RTÉ News, they hired in an external film crew to help in making it.*
Props were brought in to make the shabby newsroom look habitable and young actors were employed as journalists and production staff to swan about in the background.
“People are furious. There’s ructions going on now. A stream of senior people have been in to management protesting about this ad,” said one staffer, adding that people are up in arms over an “insulting” and “misleading” attempt to promote its high-quality news operation.
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For God’s sake, don’t tell Media Minister Patrick O’Donovan about this. He’s already enduring sleepless nights worrying about wasteful spending. Or Alan Kelly, pugnacious new Chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee.
They’ll go ballistic.
The brought-in film crew arrived about a week or so ago, and the newsroom was given a glitzy makeover in the way a tired old house might be “staged” for viewings to impress prospective buyers.
But it’s the newsroom makeover that has really annoyed everyone
“They brought lovely potted plants and installed desk dividers to make the place look less s**tty. They put in fancy lighting and a shiny new coffee machine to go with their shiny actors. And when they were finished they took everything away.”
There is “UPROAR”, reported one witness.
Comparisons have been made with that infamous incident in 1982 when Fianna Fáil’s Ray Burke, then minister for the environment, arranged for trees and shrubs to be planted in a Dublin housing estate ahead of a bye-election. When the Fianna Fáil candidate lost, he sent in the local authority to dig them all up.
“I’m surprised this didn’t get into the papers much earlier because people are so f**king annoyed, to be honest,” says one of our journalistic confidants. “I know for a fact that certain people went into the management offices to give out hell about it.”
It is not lost on staff that RTÉ very recently launched, with quite the fanfare, “a new strand of coverage called Clarity to counter false and fake news”.
A forerunner to this was its “Truth matters” campaign.
“People are being given a false impression of what a newsroom is. There is a lack of authenticity here, which is very concerning.”
The ad was filmed in the newsroom, in Studio Three and in the production gallery. Things got even worse when the crew pitched up this week in the gallery, the nerve-centre, during live broadcasts.
“The normal people were there in their seats when in comes one of the suits. He says: ‘It’s all women. Can we not have a man in here?’ That didn’t go down well. So they stuck one of the marketing guys between the director and the vision mixer. That just put the tin hat on it.”
At one point in the ad, an actor posing as a studio runner hands Six-One anchor Sharon Tobin a cup of coffee. It might happen in the movies, but that never happens for any newsreaders in RTÉ.
But it’s the newsroom makeover that has really annoyed everyone.
“This is all make-believe. We’ve had a rodent infestation. There aren’t any plants. There is no coffee machine. We’ve been asking for dividers in the office because there is no privacy. It’s a s**thole. Someone was hospitalised recently when a tile fell off the ceiling and hit them on the head.”
An RTÉ spokeswoman told The Irish Times that while RTÉ, like any media organisation, doesn’t comment on internal staff meetings, it would be factually incorrect to state there was a “row/dispute” at that day’s editorial meeting.
“Some lively differences of opinion” was how one person put it.
The spokeswoman pointed out: “The promotion is created by our in-house team. They are also leading the production of it, working with some additional external filming crew.
“RTÉ across a number of areas will at times engage external filming crews when it’s own in house staff are already engaged working on other fulltime productions.”
She stressed: “It is being made from existing in-house marketing budgets.”
On the use of props, the RTÉ spokeswoman said: “Two plants were brought in for the duration of filming to cover electrical sockets” and “there are no coffee machines featured”.
Regarding gender balance, she said: “There is an equal gender balance in both TV programme editors and deputy TV programme editors roles in RTÉ News. On one day of filming a member of RTÉ staff stood into shot in the background of one scene representing a programme editor position to reflect this.”
RTÉ is before the Media Committee on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the strong rumour from Montrose yesterday is that the advert may be iced in light of the overwhelmingly negative response by the already put-upon staff.
However, the RTÉ spokeswoman said: “The staff members working on this project are continuing to engage with colleagues newsroom. The plan is for the promotion to run later this summer.”
Verona must wish Dáil deputies were as charming as schoolchildren
It’s a brave politician who would pose for photographs under the skull and crossbones while wearing a pirate’s hat, so fair play to Verona Murphy, who was game enough to do just that on Monday night.
Then again, as Ceann Comhairle, she’s no stranger to dressing up.
And the pleasant company of a few young pirates must have been a nice change from all those old cowboys in Leinster House.
A former member of the Lowry buccaneers, Verona was in her element when she boarded “The Danny”, an old inshore fishing boat that now sits at the entrance to the picturesque Wexford seaside village of Duncannon.
Verona is a near neighbour from Ramsgrange and is something of a celebrity around these parts. She was drafted in to launch the return of the annual Duncannon festival, joined by a bloodthirsty pirate crew from the local St Oliver’s National School.
It goes without saying that the schoolchildren were far better behaved than the crowd Verona has to put manners on in Leinster House.
The one-day festival is on Saturday July 26th this year. It used to be a three-day weekend event before Covid put the kibosh on it. The packed programme includes sea and land-based family activities, a local food and craft market and tours of the scenic shoreline and historic military fort.
The band Controversial All Stars will perform on the village green (they played the Irish zone during the Paris Olympics) and an offshore firework display will round off the day.
A lucky pirate, Verona will not face the prospect of walking the plank at the next election. As Ceann Comhairle, she is guaranteed a seat in the next Dáil.
Hayes’s long-awaited speaking debut gets tetchy
Suspended Social Democrat TD Eoin Hayes has broken his duck.
The last of the new intake to do it, he’s finally delivered his maiden speech to the Dáil, six months after he was elected.
Three party colleagues were in the chamber when he spoke – Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore, Jen Cummins of Dublin South-Central and Dublin Central TD Gary Gannon, along with Labour TD George Lawlor, while a number of his supporters watched from the visitors’ gallery.
Quite a crowd for an unglamorous Topical Questions session during the late afternoon wasteland of a Thursday Dáil sitting.
Eoin, who is still a member of the Soc Dems, remains suspended from the parliamentary party indefinitely (although the parliamentary party briefly and rather shamelessly counted him in to aid the party in the divvy out of Committee chairs) for misleading colleagues over when he sold shares in a company providing services for the Israeli military.
There are divided views within the parliamentary party about his status and some members are understood to want his suspension lifted.
The currently independent deputy for Dublin Bay South thanked the “many TDs” who “have been so welcoming to me since the start of the Dáil term”. He also thanked his partner and family, his campaign workers, Dáil staff and the constituents who voted for him.
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He raised the issue of Ireland’s dependence on multinational companies, referring to a UCD report describing the domiciling of intellectual property assets by multinationals here as a $1 trillion “tax mirage”.
He called for the Government to deal with this “incredible concentration of risk in the public finances” as it is “fundamentally distortive of the Irish economy”.
Minister of State for Finance Robert Troy congratulated him on his maiden speech. “I didn’t expect to be saying that at this stage,” he said.
Eoin expressed surprise that this academic study on the “potentially catastrophic decline in the State’s resources” doesn’t appear to have merited a mention in the Dáil. “There’s something deeply problematic with that.”
Robert got a bit sniffy about that.
“I find it somewhat bizarre that you’re critical that it’s the first time this has been raised in the Dáil, and you’re here six months yourself and it’s the first time you spoke”.
“You haven’t brought it up either,” said Eoin, to murmurs of support from colleagues.
Comforting words for Rory Hearne after missing deadline
When Rory Hearne, the Social Democrats TD for Dublin North-West, was elected last year he joined Sinn Féin’s Eoin O’Broin as the Dáil’s second housing guru.
Before politics called, Rory was an associate professor/senior lecturer in social policy in Maynooth University and a much-published expert on housing.
He joined the Dáil at a good time. He knows all about housing and housing deadlines – the hot topic in Leinster House at the moment.
Naturally, he is now a member of the joint committee on housing. At its Tuesday meeting, he confessed to missing a major housing deadline of his own. Rory had hoped to get a nomination for the position of deputy chair but he confessed to submitting his name after the closing time.
“I don’t know if I can be considered?” he asked hopefully.
Chairperson Micheál Carrigy couldn’t oblige, as the time was agreed by members “and we need to start our work in the vein that what we agreed is agreed”.
The only nominee, Fianna Fáil’s Séamus McGrath, got the gig.
Eoin Ó Broin comforted his rueful colleague.
“It’s a poisoned chalice. You’ve dodged a bullet.”
Politicians put their best foot forward in kickabout
TDs and senators took to the turf at the Aviva stadium on Thursday afternoon for a kickabout with FAI officials and sponsors.
About 20 of them, organised by gaffer Pa Daly, the Sinn Féin TD for Kerry, assembled for a number of 20-minute eight-a-side games. The teams were mixed and the politicians faced each other in the hotly contested matches.
The session came about after the FAI’s recent visit to Leinster House where the grassroots development and proposed changes in match scheduling were discussed. Afterwards, Pa suggested the FAI might arrange a friendly game with a Dáil and Seanad selection.
The number of politicians signing up to play has grown since their last run-out against prisoners from Mountjoy’s progress unit.
Fianna Fáil TD for Louth, Erin McGreehan, was the only female TD politician to tog out. She was involved in controversy early doors when party colleague, Peter “Chap” Cleere from Carlow-Kilkenny, steamed in with an overzealous sliding tackle and sent her flying.
But Erin had the last laugh with a terrific volleyed goal on the brink of half-time.
In a sterling performance, Conor Murphy, the former finance minister in Northern Ireland, advanced the cause for an All Ireland team with a parsimonious approach to defence.
Mayo’s Paul Lawless of Aontú, a former professional with Derby county, showed off his silky skills while Brian Brennan, Fine Gael TD for Wicklow-Wexford, established his credential as having gone to five world cups.
Labour’s Ged Nash, Fianna Fáil’s Paidi O’Sullivan, Fine Gael’s Frankie Feighan and Sinn Féin’s Pat Buckley also impressed.
- This article was amended on 24/05/25 to include further responses from RTÉ to claims about its newsroom advertising campaign.
