The solicitor for defamed priest Fr Kevin Reynolds has said it seems premature for RTÉ to take action now when the decision and the report of the BAI investigation into Prime Time Investigates is just days away.
Robert Dore said that all along RTÉ has said it would await the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's decision before taking action.
Yesterday, RTÉ's Managing Director of News and Current Affairs Ed Mulhall announced he was retiring from the organisation.
Editor of Current Affairs Ken O'Shea resigned from his post and will transfer to another assignment in television.
Five senior posts in television news and current affairs management, including two new editorial management posts, are to be filled.
In an interview on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Dore described as “extraordinary” the fact that neither he nor Fr Reynolds was consulted during the compilation of the BAI report.
He said he has written to the BAI and RTÉ requesting the report be forwarded to him.
He said he has no idea what the report contains and that is why he believed RTÉ's actions are premature.
Mr Dore described the axing of the Prime Time Investigates brand as “cosmetic”, and said he was bemused by a further external investigation into personnel matters in RTÉ.
In response to Mr Dore's interview, a spokesperson for the BAI said the authority was only permitted to investigate the actions of the broadcaster in respect of the Prime Time Investigates programme on Fr Reynolds.
There was no interview with Fr Reynolds and it was not sought, because that would have been outside of the BAI's remit.
She said the BAI had no authority to carry out any further investigations. She said that was a matter for the courts.
The BAI received a letter from Fr Reynolds' solicitor yesterday, and will respond to it in due course, but the authority will not provide an advance copy of the report as a provision to do that is not provided for in legislation.
The BAI report is not going to be published until the process is complete.
RTÉ will receive the report by the end of the week, and has 14 days to consider its findings.
If RTÉ does not contest the findings at the end of the 14 days, the process is complete and the report can be made public.
RTÉ has said the personnel changes announced yesterday have had no bearing on the process undertaken by the BAI.
In a statement, the broadcaster said: "Yesterday's announcements detailed decisions already made by RTÉ and by senior managers who have already left RTÉ or left their post.
"Reorganisation and change is under way to guarantee a commitment to investigative journalism in programmes and it was important to state this.
"RTÉ will make its substantive and full response to the BAI report into 'A Mission to Prey', and to all its findings, when that report is published. RTÉ awaits that report.
"The board chaired by Maurice Hayes is in place as an expert external body to guarantee transparency and fairness at a key stage of RTÉ's personnel processes and decision-making arising from the programme. It is now working.
"The other editorial safeguards detailed yesterday are being put in place. None of this affects the ongoing BAI process or RTÉ's need to respond in full when the BAI report is published."
