Goan leaves a tough act to follow at top of TG4

The hunt for a new chief executive of TG4 begins this week when the post will be advertised officially. Already several likely successors to Mr Cathal Goan, ceannasai of the Irish-language television station, the have been mentioned.

Mr Goan will not be leaving his Baile na hAbhann office in Connemara until the post is filled, but is currently "double jobbing"; his appointment as successor to RTE's director of television, Mr Joe Mulholland, came into effect last week.

"We are both delighted for him, but also sad to see him going," Mr Padraic O Ciardha, his deputy, told The Irish Times.

Mr O Ciardha, leas-ceannasai at TG4, is one of those tipped to take over after the surprise announcement. As a former head of RTE's Nuacht and adviser to two ministers, Ms Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and Mr Michael D. Higgins, he is an obvious candidate.

However, he has declined to comment on the speculation. If he does apply, it will not be for the money, believed to be under £50,000 a year. The head of Welsh-language television is on £120,000 sterling.

Other possible contenders within RTE include Mr Michael Lally, head of news and a former agricultural correspondent; Ms Siun Ni Raghallaigh, head of marketing and former financial controller; Mr Alan Esselmont, head of acquisitions; Mr Cillian Fennell, former E television Late Late Show producer and current TG4 programme adviser; and two station commissioning editors, Ms Anne McCabe and Mr Micheal O Meallaigh.

However, several women who work elsewhere could prove to be stiff competition should they decide to apply. Ms Neasa Ni Chinneide, head of Irish-language programming and light entertainment at RTE, is one such, as is Ms Mairead Ni Nuadhain, a producer with Leargas, regarded as one of RTE's best home-produced current affairs programmes in either language.

Mr Pol O Gallchoir, head of Radio na Gaeltachta, has also been mentioned.

Mr Goan is expected to wield significant influence in relation to the final choice. He leaves the station in a reasonably healthy state, with viewing figures on the increase and an emerging - if somewhat begrudging - respect in RTE for what has been achieved on a very tight budget, a budget some would say was designed to try to kill off TG4.

There was the astute decision to carry live broadcasts of the hearings of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts on DIRT, and the success of the long-running soap, Ros na Run. Its daily news broadcast at 8 p.m. is as good as anything done by RTE, with news specials, like that previewing the Defence White Paper, and a special report on offshore exploration, as two examples of up-to-the-minute regional broadcasting.

One of the station's greatest strengths has been its range of children's programming, which includes cartoons dubbed in Irish and the popular series, Teletubbies. Writing in this week's Foinse, the former Irish-language editor of this newspaper, Mr Uinsionn Mac Dubhghaill, hailed this as perhaps Mr Goan's finest achievement.

Ten years ago the need for a comprehensive range of children's programming in Irish was one of the most compelling arguments for setting up the station, he pointed out.

"Few believed at that time that the day would come when - at the press of a button - you could watch the likes of Gearoid na Gaisce, the Gaelic Teletubbies or the latest cyberbuzz from the surreal world of computer games," he said. "Or that cool teenagers from all over the country would be ringing up Hiudai and taking part in competitions on Cula 4."

Whatever happens, as Tuaras cail noted in this newspaper last week, the station will need more funds. Mr Goan recently spoke about this publicly in an address to the respected Royal Television Society in Dublin.

He noted that audience share had grown from 0.3 per cent to 2 per cent. The channel's daily reach had grown from an initial 140,000 people to the current daily 600,000, he said.

However, he warned that this success was threatened by uncertainty about status and funding, and the capacity to develop into the digital age. He criticised some aspects of the Broadcasting Bill as "vague and inconsistent", and said the legislation provided the ideal opportunity to copperfasten the channel's future.

"Regrettably and crucially" the Bill made no mention of a base Exchequer funding level for TG4. Realistic funding was now a political imperative, he said.