RTÉ spends €3m to sell Montrose land
More than €3m is being spent by RTÉ on security and other costs linked to the sale of nine acres of prime land on the Montrose campus.
Last year, the national broadcaster sold 8.64 acres of land to Cairn Homes for €107.5m which was more than €30m above the guide price. Up to 500 houses and apartments are planned to be built on the sold land.
“To deliver the lands unencumbered to the purchaser, a series of sales-enabling and relocation projects were required to be carried out, both pre-sale and subsequent to the sale ... €3.1m will be incurred this year,” an RTÉ spokesperson said.
“Sales enabling includes extensive site works, external and internal road-works, new entrances, walkways, traffic flows, security, parking and general site works, and fittings.
“There are two new signs on site; at the entrance, and to the front of the canteen. The individual supplier costs on these [would be confidential] and housed within the broader land-sale enabling project costs.” The new signage was erected on the campus two weeks ago.
RTÉ will have to pay a tax bill of more than €20m on the sale of its land, while some €10m of the proceeds has been used to pay down part of its debt, according to senior management.
The ‘Project Montrose’ site — which represents just over a quarter of RTÉ’s existing 32.12 acre campus — is expected to attract interest from a wide range of Irish and international investors.
In its annual report for last year, published in May, RTÉ’s revenues were at the same level as 2016 and were helped by reduced operating costs. The national broadcaster returned a lower operating deficit, of €6.4m in 2017 compared to €19.4m in 2016.
However, the accounts showed RTÉ made its third annual loss and its seventh loss in the past nine years.
RTÉ has been carrying out broad restructuring of operations and infrastructure for the past several years, which has already seen the shedding of almost 300 jobs through voluntary exit and early retirement schemes.
The schemes are expected to cost the national broadcaster at least €25m to shed the jobs from more than 1,900 staff members.
Director General of RTÉ Dee Forbes pointed out at the time that while “it may appear to some that RTÉ has plenty of money. But given the scope and breadth of our statutory obligations, the range of services we must provide and the nature and scale of the competition we face, RTÉ now has inadequate resources”.
