RTÉ staff are paying the price for 'very bad decisions' at the top of the organisation.
National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Dublin Broadcasting Branch Chair Emma O'Kelly, who is also RTÉ's Education Correspondent, said staff are "reeling" from a decision by the broadcaster to put in place a recruitment freeze and to cut discretionary spending.
RTÉ's Director-General Kevin Bakhurst earlier told an Oireachtas committee that the sale of the Donnybrook site and voluntary redundancies may have to be considered in future.
Mr Bakhurst said that without reform of the licence fee, the future of RTÉ is in doubt.
Ms O'Kelly told The Hard Shoulder the cuts in spending will be 'tangible'.
"Spending is going to be stopped on items that will impact directly on our coverage and on our investment in equipment," she said.
"That is the tangible stuff that will directly impact on workers in RTÉ, and that's what people are reeling from today.
"Staff in RTÉ are saying that, once again, it seems like the ordinary workers are going to be bearing the brunt when we didn't cause this problem.
"The other people who will be bearing the brunt of course are the Irish public, because we've been told today that spending will be curtailed that will impact on our coverage."
Ms O'Kelly said she believes the news output will suffer most.
"In an area where many of our NUJ members work, the newsroom, we have been desperately short-staffed for a very long time now," she said.
"We can't get to cover stories because we don't have the staff to send sometimes.
"We've been promised new reporters are being recruited; we're wondering what happens to them?"
Ms O'Kelly added: "Staff in RTÉ are pointing to the fact that the immediate crisis has arisen because of governance in RTÉ, because of very bad... decisions made at the very top of the organisation, but we're paying the price."
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