Mr Bob Collins is to step down as Director General of RTÉ in October, the state broadcaster announced this morning.
Mr Collins is leaving his position some months before his contract is due to expire.
The Chairman of the RTÉ Authority, Mr Patrick J. Wright, announced the Authority had accepted Mr Collins decision.
Mr Collins told the Authority that since the process of appointing his successor would have to begin this year, it should commence now so that the new Director General would have the opportunity to be involved in the editorial and budgetary planning for 2004, an RTÉ statement said.
Mr Collins joined RTÉ in 1975 and has held a variety of posts, mainly in television, including Director of Television Programmes in 1986 - 1993. He was appointed Director-General in April 1997 for a five-year period, subsequently extended by the Authority to the maximum term of seven years.
Mr Wright said "the Authority, the organisation and all committed to Irish public service broadcasting are in [Mr Collins's] debt".