RTE has admitted that a comedy sketch portraying God being accused of rape "did not comply" with its own standards, with the clip to be taken down from the Player.
The station will issue an apology after receiving thousands of complaints about the sketch, which was shown on New Year's Eve.
And RTE's Editorial Board has ruled that the national broadcaster should turn itself in to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) after accusations of blasphemy.
An internal assessment of the clip found it failed to show "due respect" for people's religious beliefs – marking a U-turn for a station that initially refused to delete the segment from the online version of the programme.
In the clip – aired as part of a Waterford Whispers News sketch in the countdown to midnight on New Year's Eve – newsreader Aengus Mac Grianna announced that God had been arrested over "sexual harassment scandals."
And he added: "The five-billion-year-old stood accused of forcing himself on a young Middle Eastern migrant and allegedly impregnating her against her will before being sentenced to two years in prison, with the last 24 months suspended."
Today, RTE announced that its Editorial Board had found the sketch caused "undue offence" among a number of damning findings.
It has decided that RTE will make a voluntary disclosure of non-compliance with the BAI and engage with the authority in the process.
The Editorial Standards Board will review the process by which the segment was allowed to make it to the air and report on the matter.
And the broadcaster will run a public apology – with "due prominence" – which admits the sketch did not meet its own standards.
It comes after Archbishop Eamon Martin slammed the broadcaster for a segment he said was "deeply offensive and blasphemous."
