John McManus: Here’s some advice for Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly as they prepare to go before PAC

Back in the last century when I was a young reporter, I would regularly be dispatched to cover Oireachtas committees. It was in the pre-Oireachtas TV days, so you had to attend in person in order to report what was said. I still remember the frisson of mild excitement when a reporter entered the committee room. The members sat up, some straightened their ties, others coughed, and a new urgency was brought to the business of quizzing some hapless civil servant on whatever mundane business was before them.

With the mouthwatering prospect of Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly appearing before the Public Accounts Committee next week, it might be helpful to share with you some of the lessons from my salad days.

At a minimum, it may help you deal with the feelings of exasperation and frustration you will undoubtedly experience as the questioning of the two men quickly descends into a mixture of farce and missed opportunity when the members veer off down sidetracks in search of soundbites. They may think they are channeling smooth corporate attorney Harvey Specter in Suits, but they come off more like Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul.

The first thing to understand is that TDs and senators, for the most part, don’t take up posts on committees purely because they care passionately about the subject at hand. They don’t do it for money either. Only the chair of the committee is paid (roughly €10,000) and the job of committee chair is far down the hierarchy of patronage, somewhere below assistant whip.

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They do it for all sorts of reasons. Without a doubt, some do it out of a sense of public service. Others see it as part of their responsibilities. They all – for one reason or another – do it to advance their careers. That is in and of itself not a bad reason. If you come from a rural constituency, putting a good shift in on the agriculture committee should pay dividends – but only if someone notices, and not many people notice Oireachtas committees. Hence the prospect of a few lines about them in the Irish Times having a galvanizing effect on committee members 30 years ago.

The whole point of Oireachtas committees is that they are a chance for our elected representatives to hold people to account. And what you see is what you get when you have an electoral system in which there are no safe seats

Things are different now. Hearings are streamed on the Oireachtas website and carried on live TV when the subject matter warrants it. But the same logic applies: there is no point serving on a committee and hiding your light under a bushel on the rare occasions that the media shows an interest.

The result is something of an expectation gap between what people believe to be the purpose of the committee hearing, and how the members see it.

The uninitiated probably think the committee hearings are about establishing facts, apportioning responsibility and ensuring accountability – all done in a calm and measured fashion.

Saying something daft

For some members, it appears more like a chance to get on the six o’clock news. And the best way to do that is not necessarily through incisive detailed questioning, it is by saying something daft or controversial.

When you bear this in mind, the pantomime nature of what sometimes happens at Oireachtas committees is easier to understand. Every member is entitled to ask questions and gets the same limited amount of time. They are not lawyers, skilled in the art of questioning witnesses.

The result, as we have seen over the past few days, is that hearings can be a miasma of leading questions, interrupted answers, non-sequiturs, conjecture and point scoring. Plus the odd zinger thrown in as they try to come up with the soundbite of the day.

Tubridy is clearly of an intellectual bent and Kelly has a reputation as something of a Rottweiler. Neither of them is likely to prosper if they stay true to form when they are being quizzed

The fact that any useful information emerges at all amid the mayhem may be the true marvel. But it does, most of it in the opening statements of the people appearing before the committee as they try to get their retaliation in first. In this regard, the transcripts of the sessions – which are published on the Oireachtas website – are worth a read.

Without a doubt, more information could be extracted if a more structured and co-ordinated approach to questioning was adopted. That, however, is to miss the bigger picture.

The whole point of Oireachtas committees is that they are a chance for our elected representatives to hold people to account. And what you see is what you get when you have an electoral system in which there are no safe seats and every vote counts. Opportunities like the hearings into the RTÉ controversy don’t come along very often.

People are genuinely annoyed by what has transpired at RTÉ, and the committee members are more than happy to be their tribune in this instance.

Shambolic

So where does this leave Tubridy and his “consigliere” Noel Kelly? Tubridy is clearly of an intellectual bent and Kelly has a reputation as something of a Rottweiler. Neither of them is likely to prosper if they stay true to form when they are being quizzed. The chaotic, unstructured and often shambolic nature of the questioning will make it all but impossible for Tubridy to mount a nuanced defence at the committee – assuming he has one. As for Kelly, the members would like nothing more than to get down on the mat with him.

Both would be well advised to do as the countless others have been before them have done: set out your version of the facts in your opening statement and then take your punishment. All you can hope for is some sympathy from the public.

And as for the rest of us, there is nothing else to do but sit back and enjoy the spectacle.