RTÉ claims mouse in staff canteen 'an isolated incident'
With regard to the latest sighting, RTÉ said that a mouse had 'made its way into the main canteen' at the station’s Donnybrook campus. File Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin
RTÉ says a mouse discovered within the food preparation area of its staff canteen last week was an “isolated incident”.
An image of a mouse on the ground within the canteen was widely shared around the RTÉ campus when spotted last Thursday. The broadcaster has previously experienced problems with rodent control within the canteen area.
In the summer of 2023, the main canteen was closed for a second time after an infestation of rats was discovered — the first closure having occurred the previous January for the same reason.
With regard to the latest sighting, RTÉ said that a mouse had “made its way into the main canteen” at the station’s Donnybrook campus.
A spokesperson said that two deep cleans had taken place within the canteen last week — the first of which had been pre-scheduled, with the second commissioned in the wake of the mouse being spotted.
They said that pest control company Rentokil had “inspected the premises and confirmed it to be an isolated incident”.
RTÉ’s spokesperson said that the broadcaster has an “ongoing contract arrangement” with Rentokil for “a pest management programme for the full site in Donnybrook”.
That contract is not exclusive to the main canteen. Rentokil’s responsibilities include “regular checks of RTÉ’s Donnybrook campus, and inspections where deemed necessary”.
RTÉ declined to confirm how much the station has paid for pest control services in the past three years, describing that information as “commercially sensitive”.
Following the two forced closures of the canteen in 2023, the service was closed for a full refurbishment from October of that year.
That refurbishment took almost a year to complete, with the restaurant eventually reopening at the end of August last year.
The refurbishment was undertaken voluntarily by RTÉ after an environmental health officer, working in tandem with the Food Safety Authority (FSAI), demanded improvements to the canteen’s infrastructure.
Discretionary spending at RTÉ come in for sharp scrutiny over the past 18 months, in the wake of a summer of financial scandals suffered by the broadcaster from June of 2023 — which saw former star broadcaster Ryan Tubridy and several executives all leave.
Last summer, the Government finally agreed to lock in €750m of public funding in order to bail out RTÉ. This was to be delivered in the three years from 2025 to 2027.
