Former Prime Time presenter Mark Little is understood to be seeking another year extension to his current leave of absence to further pursue his online news site Storyful.com. The site combines digital media with global journalism. Little has now invested €200,000 in the venture.

When questioned on whether he intended to return to the station or extend his leave of absence, Little said:, "Business going great. Nothing to say about RTÉ."

RTÉ staff can take a maximum of five years' leave of absence or choose to extend a current unpaid leave of absence.

Little has now set up premises for the new online venture in the Business Incubation Centre in the National College of Ireland.

Queried last November by the Sunday Tribune about Storyful, the presenter said: "We wanted to get Storyful going without any fanfare. We're gradually ramping up the basic site and developing a big new feature for launch in the New Year."

Storyful is described as "a worldwide network of people who want to discover or share authentic and meaningful stories about real life in real time. The goal in the coming weeks and months is to make Storyful a destination for the shared curation of news and collaborative storytelling."

Others working on the site include David Clinch, former senior international editor at CNN.