RTÉ News has announced that journalist Brian O’Donovan has been appointed as the station’s new Work and Technology Correspondent.
r O’Donovan will leave his current role as RTÉ’s Washington correspondent to take up the new position which was previously held by Ingrid Miley who retired earlier this year.
In his new role, he will report and analyse the working lives of the general public, how they are changing and the wide-ranging developments in technology.
RTÉ News said the work and technology correspondent covers a wide brief, including the future of work and employment within industry, public and private companies, small business and sole traders; trends in work and the impact of technology on how and where we work; the role of Industrial relations including non-union sector as well as unions, disputes, negotiations and public sector pay deals; and the influence of employment and health and safety legislation and EU directives and policies on our working lives.
Mr O’Donovan will also report on the area of technology, including developments in big tech firms and Irish tech start-ups, data protection and the Irish Data Protection Commission, and consumer technology and the threat to security and personal safety through technology use.
Brian O’Donovan has been a journalist with RTÉ since 2015 and was appointed to the role of Washington Correspondent in January 2018
During his time in the US, he covered two presidential impeachments, the Black Lives Matter protest movement, the COVID-19 crisis, the US presidential election and the storming of the US Capitol Building.
In October he released his first book, Four Years in the Cauldron, which tells the story of his time covering a tumultuous and dramatic four years in the US.
Mr O’Donovan began his broadcasting career with local radio station Red FM in his native Cork and later joined TV3 where he worked for ten years in a variety of roles including news correspondent and documentary maker.
He and his wife Joanna have two daughters.
Commenting on his new role Mr O’Donovan said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a complete reimagining of how we all work and technology has allowed us to make these major transitions. As people navigate their way through the ‘new normal’, I am excited to be taking on the role of Work and Technology Correspondent, a position that will be at the centre of RTÉ’s coverage of our changing world.”