Communications firm Teneo hired by Saudis to PGA Tour-Liv Golf merger

Teneo, the communications consultancy cofounded by Irishman Declan Kelly before he left the business in 2021, has been hired by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund to promote the merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. Teneo has revealed in a declaration to the Department of Justice in the US that it will be providing services to the Public Investment Fund, which bankrolled the breakaway professional golf tour. “[We] will provide [it] with communications and stakeholder engagement consulting services with respect to [its] golf-related commercial businesses and investments, including its partnership with the PGA Tour,” the firm says.

“[We] will support the development of a strategy and engagement plan, of key messaging and other content, advise on media and social media strategy and engagement, provide media training, and support government affairs engagement in specific markets,” it adds.

Teneo has its work cut out – the much-criticised merger of the golf circuits is expected to meet resistance in Congress.

Meanwhile Teneo’s new offices on Hatch Street in Dublin must include a series of Chinese walls, since the consultancy has been working for Sport Ireland, the Irish Rugby Football Union and the Football Association of Ireland, whose recent request for State investment of €517 million it assisted. We asked Mick O’Keeffe, chief executive of Teneo Ireland, how it will cope with any overlaps. “As I am sure you appreciate,” he replied, “we do not discuss the work we do, or the services we provide, to our valued clients.”

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[ How Teneo’s master of the dark arts spun out of control ]

Of course O’Keeffe is pretty versatile himself, having played for the Dublin football team, Kilmacud Crokes and Shamrock Rovers in his time.

Nama chief once again forfeits bonus

Brendan McDonagh, the chief executive of the National Asset Management Agency, is on a Tubridyesque salary of €430,000 a year. Add in taxable benefits, such as health insurance and a company car, and his total package comes to €453,150. However, McDonagh is also entitled to discretionary performance-related payment of up to 60 per cent of his salary. Last year he waived his entitlement to be considered for this payment, as he has done every year since he was appointed to the state agency in December 2009. This means McDonagh has forfeited up to €3 million in extra pay, assuming Nama’s remuneration committee awarded him the full 60 per cent in each of those years.

In 2020, no one in Nama got any bonuses after Paschal Donohoe, the then finance minister, suggested it would be a bad look to have a compulsory redundancy programme and performance-related pay running side by side. Normal service resumed last year, however, with €300,000 in bonuses being paid to 34 employees, an average of €8,800 each.

Web Summit seeks to hire head of public affairs

The Web Summit is advertising a new role – Head of Public Affairs, Ireland. According to the job advertisement, the appointee “will lead our engagement with editors, journalists, media, policymakers, influencers and tech community leaders in Ireland”. A key duty is “building and strengthening relationships with journalists and editors regarding the company’s strategic priorities”.

[ Web Summit row may require further explanation on email deletion and recovery ]

This might prove tricky, because while the head of public affairs for Ireland is hobnobbing with the hacks, his boss is likely to be dissing them on Twitter. “I cannot stress how crooked, dishonest and willing to cover up for pals most Irish media are,” Paddy Cosgrave, chief executive of Web Summit, tweeted last Friday. Given that he holds most journalists in low esteem, why would he want an employee to be “building and strengthening relationships” with them?

HarperCollins closes one chapter on Irish book operation

The Irish book market is booming, according to a new report from Nielsen BookScan. Sales to June 17th were €61 million, up 6 per cent on last year, with 4.9 million books being sold, 81,000 more than the same period in 2022. The biggest-selling title is Spare, by Prince Harry, which has shifted 37,000 copies, while the best performing fiction title is Strange Sally Diamond, by Liz Nugent, which has clocked up 26,000 sales.

An illustration of the strength of the market is that six books have sold over 20,000 copies in 2023, compared to two at the same point last year.

Given the upward trend, it comes as a surprise to see retrenchment in the Irish publishing industry. Six years ago HarperCollins said it was doubling the size of its team in Dublin, as part of a “commitment to the thriving Irish book market”. In 2020, the Rupert Murdoch-owned publishing house launched HarperCollins Ireland, a stand-alone division, and poached Conor Nagle from Gill to lead it. The stated ambition was to launch 20 to 25 Irish titles a year.

It never happened. Nagle is leaving in mid-October, and Catherine Gough, a commissioning editor who also joined from Gill, has already departed. A spokeswoman for the British publisher told us: “We can confirm that following the resignation of Conor Nagle, HarperCollins will be suspending its publishing originated in Ireland, and the editorial function of its existing publishing will move to its UK-based divisions.”

The Dublin office will revert to providing sales, marketing and PR support for HarperCollins titles coming in from Britain.

Slow start to Irish bid to host EU agency

Having lost out to Paris for the headquarters of the European Banking Authority, Ireland is now bidding to host the new EU Anti Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). Minister for Finance Michael McGrath announced in March that we would go up against nine other EU member states – including Germany, France, Italy and Spain – for AMLA, which is to open in 2024. McGrath said the process of choosing the host could move quickly, and would be progressed during the current Swedish presidency, with the decision being taken by the EU Council and European Parliament later this year.

We checked in with the Department of Finance as to how the campaign was going. In a word, slowly. The criteria and process for the selection of AMLA’s host city has not yet been finalised, and meetings with EU officials are being arranged, we are told.

“The Minister of State [Jennifer Carroll MacNeill] provided the opening address at the European Anti-Financial Crime Summit on May 25th at the RDS, in which she highlighted Ireland’s bid for AMLA, which was well received,” the department said. “The minister has attended a bilateral meeting with his Croatian counterpart in which AMLA was discussed. Briefing was also provided for similar meetings with counterparts in Spain and Luxembourg, but we cannot confirm that AMLA was raised, as we have not seen a readout from these meetings.”

So, one well-received speech and one meeting the Croatian finance minister. Might be time for Merrion Street to step on the gas.

RTÉ auditor previously audited FAI’s accounts

The last RTÉ annual report, now permanently on our bedside table, includes the independent auditor’s report to the members of the board. It was signed on April 29th, 2022, for and on behalf of Deloitte Ireland by Richard Howard, an audit and assurance partner at the firm.

The name rang a bell, and here’s why. On December 29th, 2019, Howard represented Deloitte at a reconvened annual general meeting of the Football Association of Ireland at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin. The meeting heard much angry criticism of Deloitte, which had just resigned as the FAI auditors after 23 years’ service. Howard and his colleague Niall Walsh read a prepared statement to the agm, alleging that Deloitte had been misled by the FAI’s former directors.

This is the charge now being levelled at some executives in RTÉ, where Deloitte has been auditor since 2018.

Sales of TV licences holding steady

The An Post annual report contains the only piece of good news RTÉ is likely to see for some time: the number of television licences last year remained solid, even though more and more households are declaring that they do not possess a TV set. There were 947,924 TV licences purchased in 2022, just 3,000 down on the 2021 figure. Perhaps that’s because TV inspectors resumed knocking on people’s doors post-pandemic.

[ Government promises to reform TV licence fee by third quarter of 2024 ]

The report also confirms that the rate of household savings has fallen sharply since Covid. An Post, which sells and administers State savings products, says the net fund inflow to investment products last year was €116.1 million, down from €456.8 million in 2021. For Prize Bonds, the net inflow was €252 million, down from the bumper €340 million of Covid-hit 2021. Whatever about the holders of Prize Bonds, the scheme is certainly a winner for An Post, which earned fees of €4.5 million last year for administering it.