RTE is preparing a strategy to secure the balance of the £50 licence fee increase it wants by the autumn of next year.
The Arts Minister, Ms de Valera, last month granted the station a £14.50 increase but said it could apply for a further increase in 2003.
However, RTE will press the Minister to bring forward this review date to next year.
Senior management is currently preparing a submission to the Minister which, it says, addresses all the concerns about the running of the station raised in a report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The consultants told Ms de Valera that extra funding should be withheld from RTE until it completed its cost-cutting "transformation programme".
RTE sources maintain that the cost-cutting programme is on schedule. The station is on target to shed 330 jobs, apart from a "handful" of staff who will leave later in 2003.
Sources admit that the process has taken "longer than expected" as a result of the partnership process in place with staff. But they point out that industrial relations are good and, unlike other semi-states, not a day has been lost to industrial disputes.
RTE declined to comment yesterday on a Sunday Tribune report which claimed that Ms de Valera's officials put forward for consideration the privatisation of RTE's Network 2 television and 2FM radio.
A spokesman for Ms de Valera last night said privatisation of the two channels was "not an option that was seriously considered".