The company providing audio and video coverage of Oireachtas proceedings is not seeking to renew its contract, which runs out at the end of the year.
Pi Comms, which broadcasts the Dáil, Seanad, and all committee proceedings via the Oireachtas TV channel, outlined its decision in a letter to employees on Friday, the deadline for submitting tenders for the new contract.
The private operator was selected by the Oireachtas in 2011 following a tender process and has been reappointed twice. The last contract was worth an estimated €7 million.
[ Oireachtas broadcasting workers may strike over pay and conditionsOpens in new window ]
In their letter, joint managing directors Norah-Anne Barron and Conor O’Brien said the “difficult decision followed a careful review of the new contract framework”.
RM Block
Several factors taken together “meant the framework could not be responsibly pursued in its current form. Continuing under the proposed terms would, in our considered view, create difficulties over the next contract cycle”.
The contractor’s decision not to retender also follows protests by broadcast employees over their terms and conditions, which garnered cross-party support from more than 160 TDs and Senators, including four Ministers of State.
They signed a letter to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, citing a “compelling case” for it directly to employ the 10 full-time and 20 part-time professional broadcast workers providing the coverage, “given the extremely concerning working conditions and pay issues”.
Up to 13 employees signed on the dole during Easter, summer and Christmas recesses and they alleged “precarious and uncertain working hours”, lack of pension entitlement and “pay that is significantly below the industry norm”.
Pi Comms insisted that the rates of pay of all part-time staff were benchmarked against industry norms and their total earnings were “proportionate to the overall work undertaken throughout the year”.
In their letter, the managing directors told employees the “tendered framework presented quite a few challenges” that would affect everyone and “the new terms introduced conditions that reduced the scope for stable, sustainable delivery”.
For full-time staff, the “expanded service requirements and scope of responsibilities carried significant risk” and an “unsustainable basis” for delivery within the budget.
For part-time employees, “the continuation of the pay-per-public-minute model imposes limits which constrain”. Under the pay-per-public-minute model, the contractor receives no payment during recess periods.
“We had hoped this would evolve into a more sustainable structure providing guarantees to the supplier to better support planning and long-term service continuity.
Head-to-head: Presidential election gets confrontational
These “combined factors as a whole, rising expectations, fixed budgets, and unbalanced utilisation risk, would make the contract unsustainable to deliver in its current form”.
Pi Comms said, however, it would work closely with the Oireachtas Commission “to ensure a smooth and professional handover” and its priority “will be continuity for staff, for the service, and for the client”.
“Pi Comms will continue to meet all obligations in full, maintaining operational stability so that the essential work of the Oireachtas proceeds.”
The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, which has responsibility for the contract tender, declined to comment.
Public Accounts Committee chairman John Brady said the decision “is a little bit of a surprise … I’m not quite sure how many, if any, other companies have put in expressions of interest”.
He added that, “given the levels of concern” about employees having to sign on the dole during recess periods, it renews “the demands for the service to be brought in-house”.
Chairman of the Arts, Media and Communications committee Alan Kelly said to “bring the service in-house and to employ the staff directly following confirmation that this company is no longer going to do this work”, would be “the right thing to do”.
