PaR-TE 'Morale is on the floor' say senior RTÉ staff over leaving do photos

A number of senior RTÉ staff have voiced concerns over morale at the broadcaster amid the fallout of a leaving party during which pictured top stars allegedly broke public health guidelines.

Three probes are now under way into the attendance by RTE stars at a staff leaving do for long term television receptionist Phil Collins.

All of the high-profile broadcasters photographed have issued unreserved apologies after The Irish Sun published the pictures which were circulating on an internal RTÉ newsletter.

Bryan Dobson and news presenters David McCullagh and Eileen Dunne all posed for pictures at the gathering on November 12, where social distancing was ignored and masks were not worn.

Ms O’Callaghan told listeners of RTE Radio One’s Sunday With Miriam it is “completely her own fault”.

RTÉ yesterday confirmed that gardaí met with senior RTÉ personnel in Donnybrook, Dublin as part of their inquiryinto a retirement gathering at the broadcaster last Thursday week.

The national broadcaster has agreed to respond to a number of Garda queries in relation to the event which took place in the television reception area and was attended by a number of senior managers and broadcasters.

The incident has dominated the news agenda since the story broke on Friday morning, however for the staff left working in the Montrose campus, morale has taken a serious dip.

“We are all just devastated, morale is on the floor,” a senior staff member told the Sunday World.

“Last year was a tough year where we had redundancies and deaths and then the pandemic.

“But we had all put in such hard work keeping TV and radio shows on the air.

“We really felt that we had turned a corner and this has sort of just slammed us again.”

A second RTÉ staff member has said that the majority of staff behind the scenes, are hoping they can move on from the scandal and get back to creating great public service broadcasting.

“I don’t know what else there is to say, it wasn’t an organised (event), the people have apologised and I suppose we just all want to move on.

“Yes, these are high profile people, but they are also human and they made a mistake.

“They have held up their hands and are owning what they did and people have a right to be hurt and upset.

“I suppose we just want to try and move on and keep up the good work we were doing before all this happened.”

Download the Sunday World app

Now download the free app for all the latest Sunday World News, Crime, Irish Showbiz and Sport. Available on Apple and Android devices

Online Editors