Cash-strapped RTE were forced to spend more than €6.1 million since 2018 on maintenance works at their Dublin and Cork campuses, The Irish Mirror can reveal.
The broadcaster spent more than €1 million per year between 2018 and 2021 and €736,765 from January 1, 2022, until July 31 2022.
The total cost came to €6,104,480 over the four-year period.
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The work was split between maintenance, technology maintenance, building maintenance, building materials, ventilation system repairs, and painting.
In 2022, they spent €26,958 on painting and €135,791 on technology maintenance which is for “non-capital, small value, technology equipment, and repairs.”
Each year, they forked out at least €100,000 on building maintenance but this ballooned to more than €300,000 and 200,000 in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Releasing the documents following a freedom of information request, they said “it is assumed that a VAT rate of 13.5% has been applied to all costs downloaded from our accounting system.
“Submitted figures are shown NET of VAT.”
RTE’s main campus is located in Donnybrook in south Dublin and has eight fully equipped television studios and two sound stages.
They also have other regional offices around the country including in Cork on Father Mathew Street.
The Irish Mirror asked for a breakdown of each repair but RTE said this was not possible, explaining “due to the large number of transactions involved”, it would “place an onerous burden on the staff of the Finance division”.
When contacted, a spokesman for the broadcaster said: “The costs incurred by RTE for the maintenance of its Dublin and Cork sites and buildings are in line with industry expectations for a large media organisation, with extensive television, radio, and online services operating 24/7 all year round.
“In addition to some state-of-the-art studios and technologies which are essential to deliver the standard of service expected by our audiences, RTE’s sites also have some ageing buildings and infrastructure which require considerable resources to maintain to a standard in line with statutory compliance and business continuity requirements.”
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