Cash-strapped RTÉ is set to spend up to €840,000 on travel agency services to arrange flights, accommodation and other transport requirements for staff and executives at the national broadcaster.The money will be paid to a travel agent for arranging and booking transport and accommodation, and does not include the actual cost of flights, hotels, and other related services.The broadcaster is currently seeking tenders for a contract to provide corporate travel services. It expects to spend €840,000 plus VAT under the contract over the next four years. Its current service provider is Club Travel.The corporate travel services will predominantly involve international journeys, according to the tender documents, and prospective contractors have been asked to outline how they would manage two examples of possible trips.One of these involves a single passenger travelling to Paris with one bag on July 1 and returning the next day. In this scenario, they want an aisle seat, and also require accommodation in a four-star hotel near Trocadero.The other example involves a passenger travelling to Chennai, India for a week with one check-in bag or camera equipment. They also require four-star accommodation in a hotel in Kanchipurum.A spokesman for RTÉ told the Irish Mirror that most corporate travel relates to the broadcaster’s coverage of news and sporting events overseas.“RTÉ has a range of travel requirements relating to the delivery of public service programming and content to audiences, as well as other essential travel from time to time,” he said.“Essential travel – flights, ferries, trains and buses, as well as accommodation, primarily outside of Ireland – predominantly relates to RTÉ’s delivery of coverage of important news events and sporting events, plus other corporate travel requirements where necessary and consistent with RTÉ’s Travel Policy.”The spokesman added that RTÉ is contractually obliged to deliver certain coverage of news and sporting events.The successful company will be responsible for “facilitating the booking of travel and accommodation”, and bidders are required to describe to the national broadcaster how they will ensure value for money for RTÉ.They will also be required to give a “live demonstration” of the end-to-end process involved with their booking system. The contract is expected to be awarded to the successful company in November.RTÉ’s unpublished annual report for 2023 shows that the broadcaster had a deficit of €9.1 million for last year, which its chairman Terence O’Rourke described as a “difficult and damaging” period for the national broadcaster. The report notes that licence fee income received by RTÉ last year was down €17.3 million on 2022.Earlier this year, the broadcaster received a €20 million bailout from the Government in the wake of the secret payments controversy. It was also announced that it would get €725 million in public funding over the next three years.
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