RTÉ says it remains “committed to regional coverage” despite stinging criticism from the broadcaster’s former correspondent for the south-east, Damien Tiernan.

Mr Tiernan – who took voluntary redundancy last month and begins his new mid-morning programme on Waterford’s WLRFM today – stands by his claim that regional news reports have reduced, particularly on RTÉ’s ‘Six One’ programme.

Speaking to the Irish Independent last night, Mr Tiernan stood over figures he published showing a reduction in news reports from the south-east, saying the regional office in Waterford kept a file of its output.

“I’m disappointed and disgusted that RTÉ disputes the figures,” he said.

“We had the figures going back 25 years and in the early days we were making around 220 stories a year, and that dwindled down to 40 or 50 even before Brexit.

“This isn’t a case of league tables of correspondents. But in my view the correspondents should be producing regularly, even when they are not covering breaking news stories.

“If a correspondent doesn’t appear for a while, people start wondering why. The licence fee-payer in each region deserves a service from that region,” he said.

“There needs to be a system of getting broadcasts. ‘Six One’ was extended to an hour to accommodate that, to give a nationwide coverage.

“When we weren’t covering breaking stories we used to do the middle-of-the-road debates and controversies in the area. What happened to that?” Mr Tiernan asked.

It is understood the regional round-up from ‘Six One’ was dropped to allow for more coverage of “hard-hitting” stories.

Regional reports were picked up by ‘Nationwide’, which was expanded to three days a week.

The series – hosted by Mary Kennedy and Anne Cassin – is also produced by RTÉ News and Current Affairs.

“There are a lot of box-tickers in RTÉ and that needs to change,” Mr Tiernan said. “I often suggested different programmes, a few of them were picked up on, but many others weren’t.”

He initially gave his figures in an interview with the ‘Sunday Business Post’, which was published yesterday. He did not include figures for the ‘Nationwide’ programme.

RTÉ said it did not recognise Mr Tiernan’s figures.

The broadcaster’s head of news and current affairs Jon Williams tweeted in reply: “Agree RTÉ has brilliant correspondents – which is a why we’ve just appointed new regional correspondents in Dundalk & Belfast. Odd definition of “slashing”. Wish @damienwlrfm every success in new role.”

Mr Tiernan replied: “Am disgusted, disappointed but not surprised by RTÉ basically calling me a liar with my figures Jon; RTÉ does not recognise my figures because RTÉ doesn’t care enough to ask someone to count them.”

He added: “And one thing, the regional section on the website and app is a joke. If you want to get into a public spat with me bring it on but I have better things to do; I love RTÉ more than you will ever know.”

Mr Tiernan said last night that he’d had minimal dealings with Mr Williams since he had been appointed to the role two years ago.

He said he had earned €90,000 as a regional correspondent with RTÉ and would be earning less with WLRFM. However, he did not want to spend any more time “begging” RTÉ bosses to get stories on air.

A spokesperson for RTÉ said it “remained committed to regional coverage on all its platforms”.

“We wish our former colleague Damien Tiernan all the best in his new role in local radio,” the spokesperson added.

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