RTÉ's Director of Video Steve Carson has said the broadcaster's commitment to airing Irish documentaries "is not changing".
Yesterday, RTÉ confirmed that its in-house TV documentary unit will cease production next year.
The broadcaster added that "documentary output will not be impacted".
This week, an RTÉ Trade Union Group (TUG) spokesperson criticised the decision, saying that RTÉ has "dramatically increased commercialisation, with whole swathes of the organisation now being primed for outsourcing".
RTÉ's flagship TV documentary unit is just the latest to be earmarked for complete closure, the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson said this decision was taken "at the expense of stable jobs in the sector, to be replaced by more precarious short-term employment".
"RTÉ is using the fallout from a scandal of management's own making to hollow out the organisation, selling it off bit by bit," the spokesperson added.
Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Carson said that around 72 hours of documentary programming will be offered this year, about nine hours of which is made by the in-house team.
He said they are looking at about 75 hours next year.
"So reporting of RTÉ cutting documentaries, moving out of documentary production or documentary broadcasting isn't right," he added.
This morning, Mr Carson said the broadcaster is getting smaller as it goes through the voluntary exit process and they are looking at the resources they will have next year.
"The voluntary exit process hasn't completed yet, but we know we'll have fewer people next year and we'll need to look at doing things differently and reducing doing some things," he said.
"What we've planned is, we're not committed to making nine hours of documentary production next year because we can expand that through the independent sector.
"That frees up our talented teams to go and reinforce other areas of production which are really important, so that's entertainment, Fair City, and increasingly we also want to follow audience needs by offering on-demand content and podcasting."
Recent documentaries made by the in-house team include Trackers: The People v The Banks, part two of which will broadcast on RTÉ One next week, programmes about Gerry Hutch, AKA The Monk, a film about foundlings called The Phone Box Babies and a profile of Irish businessman Michael Smurfit.
Mr Carson said Ireland has a "mixed creative economy" and RTÉ has always been an important part of that.
He said many of the big shows that audiences know and love are already made by independent producers, such as The Traitors and Dancing with the Stars.
"We work closely with independent producers. Our remit is to serve our audiences with the widest range of content across all the genres - documentary, comedy, news and current affairs, sport," he said.
"It's a mixed creative economy and part of our new directive strategy is designed to increase that."
Working with independent sector is not outsourcing - Carson
Mr Carson said independent production companies are part of the creative economy and they create content that audiences want.
He said every single programme broadcast on RTÉ has an RTÉ staff member behind it to make sure that the programmes deliver what audiences want and are compliant with the broadcaster's guidelines.
"We're going to continue to supply the full range of content across genres, we're going to do it in different ways.
"We're going to be working in partnership with commissioning, with the independent sector, but also with a significant in-house production base as well," he said.
"Audiences want more from us. They want our traditional TV services, radio services, which we're strong in.
"We're also growing our on-demand services on the RTÉ Player, the news app, and next year the audio app.
"It's not about doing less, it's about following audiences, offering the content that they want, but doing it in a different way."
Mr Carson said working with the independent sector is not outsourcing, but is part of the creative economy.
He said The Late Late Show and Fair City are "important" to audiences and they have looked at future models for those programmes.
Both are made on site in RTÉ, he said, and that while the studios have "served us well" for over 50 years, they are "approaching the end of life".
"By the end of the decade we'll have to either invest more than €100 million in refurbishment or we have to look at other options. We're looking at options to make those shows off site," he said, adding that a review will look at the feasibility of this.
"It's a detailed bit of work, we're not making any decisions until then. The shows are going to continue on site for next year. It's prudent, given that we've got a five-year window until we reach 2030. It's prudent to do the work now to secure the future of the programmes going forward."
