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RTE has announced that it is to shut its regional offices in a number of locations around the county - with operations set to move to nearby institutes of technology.
The national broadcaster will close offices in Sligo, Dundalk, Galway, Athlone and Waterford with staff operating out of local college facilities. The Cork and Limerick offices will be maintained but the Belfast office will be reduced in size.
The move, which is due to be implemented by January, will save RTE €1m a year.
No jobs will be lost in the move and the broadcaster insisted that all regional correspondents will continue to provide extensive coverage from their existing regions.
However, it said that some other staff roles will be reviewed.
As part of the re-structuring, RTE said it had already re-deployed journalists from Cork, Limerick and Belfast to Dublin.
Nuacht staff have moved from Donnybrook to Connemara in Co Galway.
From January Nuacht Radio will broadcast from the Connemara base in Casla. It will also be the base from where the first-ever Irish language online unit will operate.
RTE said the move to link up with the IT colleges would ”place RTÉ at the centre of technological and educational innovation and link it to a future generation of media industry leaders”.
“RTÉ will continue to seek opportunities for development in this area with other third-level institutions in these regions and others,” it said in a statement.
Over the next few weeks, joint working groups will be established between each IT and RTÉ to look at the range and potential of these new relationships.
