RTÉ’s corridors were throbbing with joy last Friday afternoon. Children skipped and squealed with excitement in the countdown to curtain-up for the Toy Show. Workers in the television building watched on and wondered if they were witnessing the final act.

Plans to outsource the Late Late Show are in train. The move could be a fait accompli by Christmas next year. Fair City is for dispatch to the private commercial sector too, along with Lotto draws and religious services. The television documentary unit that incubated exposés like Missing: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle, Leathered: Violence in Irish Schools and Trackers: The People v The Banks is being shut down. Claire Byrne, one of the country’s best current affairs broadcasters, has decamped to Newstalk where, unlike RTÉ, presenters’ pay is not capped. Up to 400 other employees are being urged to go with voluntary redundancy packages. Among them are make-up artists, wardrobe-keepers, sound engineers, riggers and technicians who have kept the studio lights on during the bleakest times. Tumbleweed on a John Wayne scale is coming for Montrose.

The answers to these questions matter. They matter to workers loyal to RTÉ who fear it is being stripped of essential assets

The Oireachtas media committee’s meeting with RTÉ on Wednesday was more Shakespeare than cowboys-and-injuns. Dee Forbes was not on the list to appear.

Like Banquo’s ghost, RTÉ’s director general and board member quit after news of undisclosed payments to Ryan Tubridy detonated a scandal involving........

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