RTE makes heavy weather of presenting Met charts

Not since the Angelus icons were replaced by ordinary people pausing to pray has the nation been so exercised. Another of our sacred cows - the weather obviously - has been desecrated, and this depression shows no sign of lifting.

A sure indication is the regularity with which the letter-writers to this newspaper have been voicing their disapproval of the enforced departure from RTE television of the seasoned weather men and women including Evelyn Cusack, Joan Blackburn and Aidan Nulty. Gerry Fleming (and the way he might wink at you) appears to be especially mourned.

Since last January there has been a slow but relentless haemorrhaging of these unlikely TV stars and last month they were totally replaced by a foursome of bright young things, none of whom, despite the job advertisement that stressed a degree specialising in meteorology, has a formal background in weather.

"It seems like change for the sake of change," said one of the former weather presenters, who is now only responsible for providing a script and graphics for the new team. "They have no feeling for the weather, no background in it, and essentially they are just mouthpieces for Met Eireann."

Organisations including the Irish Fishermen's Organisation and Macra na Feirme, whose members' livelihoods and in some cases lives depend on the weather, have also been quick to condemn the new service. The Irish Sailing Association rowed in with the comment that the new presenters didn't carry the same conviction and are not as believable as their predecessors, one of whom had been on our screens for 15 years.

The association's secretary, Paddy Boyd, said: "A couple of years ago RTE had the presenters of Morning Ireland reading the weather but reverted back after people complained. We are at a loss to understand why they are doing it again."

Crucially, Mr Boyd reports that many sailors have taken to switching over to the BBC for their weather service. This development and the general response of viewers are of serious concern to Joe Mulholland, managing director of RTE Television, who said he was not happy about the way the changeover occurred.

"I certainly regret the way this has happened," he said. "We wanted Gerry Fleming to continue to work for us both on and off screen but he did not want to. This was unfortunate and forced us to fall back only on the new presenters."

Mr Fleming could not be contacted last night.

Mr Mulholland was keen to point out that, while the shift was part of an ongoing response to demographic changes and developments in television generally, RTE was not out of touch with viewers' feelings. "We have received letters about it and we are going to take steps to reassure the public that we are not ignoring them or behaving arrogantly," he said.

However, he believes that the content of the broadcasts, which are all written by Met Eireann employees, has not changed to any considerable extent, and says that compared to this time last year the bulletins - which have been cut temporarily from two minutes to 90 seconds - are basically the same.

Mr Mulholland also points to Britain, where he says there has been an attempt to bring television presenters into the world of weather reporting.

While it is true that at a regional level there has been an attempt to mix presenters with Met Office trained personnel, the BBC wouldn't dream of using anyone but experts on national television.

Andrew Reilly, producer of regional and national weather with the BBC, said: "If there is a risk of life - which there can be with the weather - we don't like what we call artists presenting it. You need the credibility of a meteorologist standing over their story. If they say don't go out on the roads because there is lots of ice about the viewers need to believe them."

He gives the example of the 1987 hurricane which veteran meteorologist Michael Fish got spectacularly wrong. "The Met Office got a certain amount of egg on face after that but Fish still emerged with credibility because people accept the weather data can sometimes be wrong. If a presenter had made that mistake he or she would never have been seen on television again."

And it is the new presenters who rather unfairly are coming under the most pressure.

Brian Cummins (31) took a pay cut from his job as scientific officer with the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland for a shot at TV fame. "People expect you to be as good as people who have been doing this for 20 years," said the physics graduate, who is on a two-year secondment from his old job.

All four presenters are receiving training from the professionals.

Another of the four new faces, a former AA Roadwatch presenter, Nuala Carey (23), maintains that knowing a lot about a subject doesn't necessarily make for better presentation. "It's important that the information is presented in an easygoing way," she said.

The forecast for the controversy is bleak at the moment, with the meteorologists' union IMPACT still considering taken an ageism action against RTE under the new employment equality legislation.

Ms Carey favours a more optimistic outlook. "The controversy is unfortunate, but I think it will die down . . . It's a bit of a storm in a teacup."

Roisin Ingle is on ringle@irish-times.ie