RTE journalists will today discuss an embarrassing error by the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht which has over shadowed an RTE decision on,
Teilifis na Gaeilge.
The RTE authority decided on "Friday that the news service for TnaG would be based at its head"quarters in Baile na hAbhann in Connemara, with Dail coverage and some national and international news coming from journalists based in Donnybrook.
This decision was misinterpreted by the Department, which issued a statement on behalf of the Minister, Mr Higgins, and later retracted it. The statement welcomed the decision to "decentralise" RTE's own nuacht service to Baile na hAbhann and said it was in line with Government policy on decentralisation.
The Department took the unusual step yesterday of issuing a correction and apology for the "misunderstanding". But this has failed to dampen suspicions in RTE that the statement reflected Departmental thinking on the issue.
RTE's assistant director general, Mr Bob Collins, said the incident was the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding.
The news for TnaG would be separate from RTE nuacht, though the two services would cooperate. It would fill about half of the hour's programming RTE would supply to the new station each day and create more than 20 jobs he said, mostly in Connemara.
"It has never been in contemplation that RTE's nuacht service would be transferred from RTE to Baile na hAbhann," Mr Collins said. "The two news services will serve quite different purposes and serve different audiences They will obviously collaborate with each other in a variety of ways and will be able to complement each other."
The ceannasai or head of Teilifis na Gaeilge, Mr Cathal Goan, said the news service would take a people centred approach to the news, which was not always defined by the major political issues dominating central government.
"It's a new operation being, undertaken by RTE on behalf of Teilifis na Gaeilge which will afford us the editorial distance" from RTE and which will allow us to operate from a very flexible basis in order to take best advantage of new technologies.
"In the sense that TnaG are the publishers of the material which will be broadcast, then obviously we're the people who are responsible for the editorial content of it and it would be foolish if we didn't have that editorial control.