FAIR CITY WILL return to screens for four nights per week following previous concerns over the programme’s resources.

From 20 September, a new, extra episode will be aired on Friday every week after the crew returned to taping the soap opera this month, after working on RTÉ’s summer sports coverage.

The production of RTÉ’s flagship soap opera stopped temporarily in July and August so the crew could assist with coverage of the UEFA Euros 2024, the Olympics and the GAA All-Ireland Championships.

This decision sparked concerns among unions that the programme – which is celebrating 35 years on air this year – did not have enough resources for the taping of the show.

The station in April said that the crew would still be filming four episodes per week until July but only three would be aired per week so RTÉ had enough to continue showing the programme over the summer.

With the crew back taping the show, staff are still concerned that the programme will be outsourced at some point in the near future. The plans were included in the broadcaster’s new strategy in June that also detailed job cuts and salary caps.

The changes are part of a number of new measures the station is taking internally following the RTÉ payments scandal. Unions have said, however, that their workers will seek to block the “privatisation” of the soap opera.

Kevin Bakhurst, the station’s Director General, pushed back against the claims earlier this year. He reasoned that plans to outsource the production of The Late Late Show and Fair City would not be unlike how shows are currently produced externally.

Workers’ union Siptu argued that the station moving towards private ownership while “eroding conditions of employment”.

But Bakhurst said that every other drama television programme, except for Fair City, are outsourced to an independent production company and that RTÉ would still have editorial control once the bosses decide if the soap will be filmed elsewhere.

Fair City and The Late Late Show are to be moved off site, as the Montrose studios in Dublin are to undergo much-needed renovations. Third-party production companies will take over the taping of the shows but writing and editorial staff in RTÉ will remain.