What we know now
- Oireachtas Media Committee hearing ends after almost six hours
- RTÉ board chairwoman Siun Ní Raghaillagh has called out the “inconsistency and lack of completeness” from the executive
- She said this and the provision of information to the board has “eroded Board confidence in the executive”
- Chief financial officer (CFO) Richard Collins says there are three companies involved in providing bartered services but only one account
- Acting interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch says one RTÉ staff member had the loan of a car for five years and returned it yesterday
- The former chief financial officer Breda O’Keefe defended her role in negotiating the new five year contract for Ryan Tubridy
- She said the tripartite deal between Renault, RTÉ and Tubridy underwritten by the broadcaster was rejected during her term
- Details have emerged about spending from barter accounts, including almost €5,000 for Havaiana flip-flops
- Ryan Tubridy will not be presenting his radio show next week.
- The presenter and his agent Noel Kelly have agreed to appear before Oireachtas hearing next week
- RTÉ to be added to list of commercial State sector companies subject to the formal oversight of the National Treasury Management Agency
- RTÉ was plunged into deeper crisis on Tuesday night after confirming it had discovered more barter accounts. Read our lead story here
- The broadcaster disclosed the existence of two more ‘barter’ accounts that have been used to fund €1.6 million on client entertainment and corporate hospitality over the last 10 years
- Last night RTÉ supplied dozens of pages of documents to the committee. Read more here
Best reads on RTÉ pay crisis
- Kathy Sheridan: In a country with a population the same as Barcelona’s, do we need celebrity journalists?
- Arthur Beesley: RTÉ faces glare of public scrutiny as never before with cascade of investigations
- Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster claimed that RTÉ brought a group of about 70 people to the K Club for golf
- Miriam Lord writes that rarely have TDs been so eager to get stuck in
- And if you’re wondering, what is a barter account?, Colm Keena wrote this piece last week
The Oireachtas Media Committee hearing has ended after almost six hours of questions and answers and as you might imagine there was a lot in it.
Here is just a snapshot ahead of more detailed reporting from my colleagues later this evening and tomorrow.
RTÉ board chairwoman Siun Ní Raghaillagh called out the “inconsistency and lack of completeness” from the executive and said this and the provision of information to the board has “eroded Board confidence in the executive”
Chief financial officer (CFO) Richard Collins told the hearing that there were three companies involved in providing bartered services but only one account.
The former chief financial officer Breda O’Keefe defended her role in negotiating the new five year contract for Ryan Tubridy. She said the tripartite deal between Renault, RTÉ and Tubridy underwritten by the broadcaster was rejected during her term.
One of the headline details to emerge late night was that RTÉ is spending more than €2,300 on annual membership of a club in London.
It came up at the hearing and Chief Financial Office Geraldine O’Leary said the membership was in her name and explained that a significant percentage of the broadcaster’s revenue comes from the UK. “Previously we had offices in London where we’d meet clients and we don’t have that any more, so we avail of the chance to meet clients in Soho House,” she said.
Acting interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch said one RTÉ staff member had the loan of a car for five years and returned it yesterday, He said he could not say who it was or what they did in RTE. As you might imagine the rumour mill whirred almost immediately into life.
Away from the hearing, Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly agreed to appear before Oireachtas hearing next week.
The Minister for Arts, Culture and the Media Catherine Martin has said she spoke to the chairwoman of the board and said she had received an outline of the Board’s position, particularly around the deeply unsatisfactory nature in which information is being provided by the Executive.
The Irish Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Séamus Dooley has said NUJ members and their colleagues in RTÉ are “shellshocked” at the breakdown of expenditure released by the RTÉ Executive Board to Oireachtas Committees this morning.
Details of RTE spending also emerged including €5,000 on flip flops for a summer party and annual membership of an exclusive club in London.
And finally when Robert Short, the staff rep on the board was asked what must happen for confidence to be restored in RTÉ the staff representative on the board Robert Shortt pointed to a “number of things the board have committed to doing. One of them was to bring in any future amendments or new presenting contracts under the remit of the remuneration committee. That’s important.
“We’ve got a lot of reflection to do in how we approach issues and ask questions and we’re going to take that very seriously. I know there are many reviews going on and as a part of my membership of the Audit and Risk committee, we’re hoping that the Grant Thornton review will be concluded soon. So there’s an awful lot of immediate work to do, and then other things like questioning ourselves in how we can work better.”
Nearly done now. The last thing of substance likely to emerge is the Ryan Tubridy will not be presenting his radio show next week. What happens after that is very much up in the air.
In answer to a question from People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett former chairwoman Moya Doherty said she joined RTÉ as a typist and became a broadcasting assistant and a producer, and she never wanted to be a manager.
“The entire eco system has changed,” she said. “This is not the way things were 20 years ago. It is very difficult to get those salaries back. They were reduced by 30 per cent and a subsequent 15 per cent - that was 45 per cent. We know that one salary did not reduce because there was a clandestine arrangement”.
We are on the home stretch now. There are around four TDs and senators with questions still to be asked and the chair has asked them to keep those questions brief. Everyone in the room must be wrecked given that the hearing has been going on for more than five hours at this stage.
Chairwoman Niamh Smyth has been asking questions first about the Toy Show the Musical debacle. RTE’s Director of Strategy Rory Coveney told her that the Convention Centre which seats 2,000 people and was chosen as it “was the right size for the type of show we wanted to put on. Obviously we were incorrect,” he added. He said that were they to put the show on again they would choose a smaller venue.
Adrian Lynch said that there were around 20 people on the long list to replace Ryan Tubridy as the host of the Late Late Show. Few if any of them would have known they were on the list.
She also asked commercial director Geraldine O’Leary to furnish a list of meetings that took place in Soho House. That is to be forthcoming.
While the hearing is going on some of the committee members have been on the airwaves giving their views about how things have bene going. Sinn Fein’s Imelda Munster said there were “still numerous questions that need to be answered”.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime she said it “was painful trying to extract truthful answers and one exec was contradicting the other and there was that mentality of ‘I don’t know, I didn’t ask, I wasn’t made aware’. I couldn’t honestly say that I would have confidence,” in the the Executive Board. “I know the new director general has said that he’s going to do a reconstructing within the Executive Board and I think that has to be done. We need to see big changes and there also has to be consequences.”
Speaking on the same show fellow committee member Timmy Dooley suggested that “there are individuals on that board that do need to reflect on everything that has happened. It may be that they were well intentioned and that maybe they didn’t ask the questions but their continued existence ... I think they need to stay with it until we get to the end of it, but their continued existence on the Executive Board will not help in the rebuilding of trust that’s now needed”.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) branch representing members employed at RTÉ has said workers are “incredibly upset and reeling” following further revelations at the broadcaster.
The NUJ Broadcasting Branch said: “The contrast between the lavish spending we are hearing about and how ordinary staff were being treated during these years is staggering”
The union said when former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes assured star presenter Ryan Tubridy his payments would not be cut, many young workers were going into a sixth month without pay increments because they had been suspended by the Irish national broadcaster.
Branch chairwoman Emma Ó Kelly said RTÉ was paying for membership at a private members club in London while its London correspondent Fiona Mitchell was using cafes around the city as an office to report on Brexit.
“Fiona was forced to use toilet facilities in cafes as a quiet space to record her voice for TV and radio reports,” Ms Ó Kelly said.
She added that in the same period NUJ members were “upset and anxious” over problems with Covid payments, precarious contracts and other pandemic-related challenges.
Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan also asks Breda O’Keeffe if she feels she was thrown under the bus and says he felt there was an effort from the executive to distance themselves and put the blame at her and Dee Forbes door. She says she “wanted to set the record straight” with her recollections of events. “I would say my recollections were more akin to what happened, is my view”
The hearing has been suspended for a second time ahead of a Dáil vote.
Still waiting for the hearing to resume ... In the meantime, here are some of Jack Horgan Jones’s takes via Twitter.
Before the break for the Dáil vote there was an interesting exchange between Sinn Féin TD John Brady and former CFO Breda O’Keefe.
When asked why Ryan Tubridy’s management team’s request for the broadcaster to underwrite the deal with Renault was refused. she said it “posed a risk and a potential cost exposure to the organisation if the arrangement wasn’t fulfilled. When I left RTÉ there was no support from RTÉ to provide that type of guarantee. That was my view but it was also the view of the DG, the head of content, and the RTÉ solicitor at the time”.
The deal was subsequently underwritten.
We’re back and there is more questioning about the car that had been loaned to an RTÉ staff member for five years until yesterday.
The hearing has broken for a Dáil vote. We will resume shortly.
Fine Gael Senator Micheál Carrigy asks about wages at executive level and wonders if a combined total executive board wage of around €2.4 million per year is value for money?
Ms Ní Raghallaigh says the “wage levels are what is there and what had been negotiated according to market rates as I would imagine. I know in relation to the Board the only Executive that we are directly involved in hiring is the Director General and that salary is as set out by DPER and the Department, and that contract is set out by DPER, and we use the same template in relation to that.”
One of the headline details to emerge late night was that RTÉ is spending more than €2,300 on annual membership of a club in London.
Ciarán Cannon asks about the Soho House membership in London.
Geraldine O’Leary says the membership is in her name and explains that a significant percentage of the broadcaster’s revenue comes from the UK.
“Previously we had offices in London where we’d meet clients and we don’t have that any more, so we avail of the chance to meet clients in Soho House,” she said.
We are at the half way point – or perhaps a little bit beyond that. Jack Horgan Jones has some analysis of what we have heard so far.
A clear division
There is a clear division between the board and the executive, with chair Siun Ní Raghaillagh calling out the “inconsistency and lack of completeness” from the executive. She says this and the provision of information to the board has “eroded Board confidence in the executive”. This was echoed by former chair Moya Doherty, who basically said the board was deprived of all the relevant information it needed.
Muddled exchanges
There is still opacity around the barter account, again courtesy of RTÉ itself. Last night RTÉ told the committee there were three barter accounts, which seemed to contradict evidence from Richard Collins, the CFO, to the Public Accounts Committee last week. Today, Collins stood by his testimony, saying there are three companies involved in providing bartered services but only one account. Clear as mud.
Spiky exchanges
The impact of the committee hearings on those participating is beginning to tell. Geraldine O’Leary, the commercial director who is due to retire to eight weeks, was asked if she felt her position was tenable during a particularly heated exchange with Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster. She said “I’m not sure my position is tenable,” citing invasions into her privacy, what she said were erroneous reports about her on Twitter and in the newspaper and the impact on her mental health.
A car on loan
Adrian Lynch was brought back several times to the issue of cars for RTÉ contractors and staffers – at the end of the first half of questions, he made the startling omission that one RTÉ staff member was in receipt of the loan of a car for a total of five years, but that it was returned – yesterday. This is another example of a small facet of the story that will shock and anger the wider public.
Breda O’Keeffe’s defence
The former Chief Financial Officer is appearing today, and in a lengthy opening statement she staunchly defended her role in negotiating the new five year contract for Ryan Tubridy. Crucially, she said that the question of the tripartite deal between Renault, RTÉ and Tubridy being underwritten by the broadcaster was rejected during her term, and that she only learned it went ahead last week
Cold storage for the Toy Show musical
Rory Coveney, the director of strategy, was buttonholed again on the financial and commercial fiasco of the Toy Show musical, which RTÉ conceded has cost it €2.2 million. He said that the anticipation was its profit margin would increase over time, with initial costs sunken. But now it is in cold storage – including the set, storage for which is the only ongoing cost, he said, at €8,000 a year.
Tubridy’s contract
CFO Richard Collins said he was at a meeting in April 2020 during which it was said the underwriting proposal was refused. He said he concluded the “straightforward” part of Tubridy’s deal, ie the five year contract, but he said the Director General was handling the commercial part – arguing he took comfort from this and said he effectively had bigger things to worry about in the form of the threat to the broadcaster from the Covid pandemic. It was confirmed that his current contract is a verbal one, effectively a bridging deal between the now concluded TV and radio contract, and one which was to cover radio only where talks have been suspended.
Bogus self employment
The Department of Social Protection, Lynch said, is investigating the status of 500 individuals who worked with RTÉ. Collins would not, for a second week, be drawn on what the contingent liability is associated with this, only saying it is “sizeable”. Niamh Smyth, the committee chair, was not happy with that line.
Adrian Lynch tells Timmy Dooley that one unnamed staff member had a car on loan for a period ... when asked how long the car was on loan, the response was five years.
And when was that car returned? Yesterday.
The committee is on a short break now.
Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon suggests that there is not “one RTÉ, but two RTÉs” and he draws a distinction between the high paid staff and the rest.
He suggests that RTÉ “seems to be cutting the resources to those who are charged with delivering on RTÉ's remit”, while not cutting back on commercial spending.
Moya Doherty says “clearly the balance of power shifted to the Commercial, and that gives power to those who bring in big commercial revenue and that must change. The system is broken, the governance is broken, and in some ways that makes for broken people making broken decisions.”
Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley makes a point of saying the committee owes commercial director Geraldine O’Leary “a debt of gratitude” and highlights that she has been asked to make public things that in the normal course of events would not be discussed. She is, he says, describing how the sausage gets made, and that people don’t always like the ingredients.
Asked by Labour senator Maria Sherlock what must happen for confidence to be restored in RTÉ the staff representative on the board Robert Shortt has a view.
“I think there’s a number of things the board have committed to doing. One of them was to bring in any future amendments or new presenting contracts under the remit of the remuneration committee. That’s important.
“We’ve got a lot of reflection to do in how we approach issues and ask questions and we’re going to take that very seriously. I know there are many reviews going on and as a part of my membership of the Audit and Risk committee, we’re hoping that the Grant Thornton review will be concluded soon. So there’s an awful lot of immediate work to do, and then other things like questioning ourselves in how we can work better.”
By way of an update, there are 14 members of the committee with questions to ask and six of them have had their turn suggesting there’s a couple of hours to go.
No fraud committed.
Independent TD Mattie McGrath starts by reminding everyone that “many people found humour in my accent last week”. He is referring to a misunderstanding when he asked who the RTÉ board was loyal to and members thought he was asking who the board was lying to.
Mr McGrath asks if executive had been fully truthful last week.
He also asks if they failed in their fiduciary duty.
Moya Doherty says that the board didn’t have the information it needed.
Mr McGrath raises the prospect of a Garda investigation into fraud. Moya Doherty says she has taken comfort in legal guidance that no fraud involved.
Former CFO Breda O’Keefe says that in early 2020 the Head of Commercial said Renault had already agreed cost budgets for 2020, so the agreement had to be cost neutral in the first year.
“This gave rise to a potential rebate to Renault and this potential rebate to Renault was known by me, the RTÉ solicitor, the Director General and the Head of Content. I understood this rebate, if agreed, would be assigned to Ryan Tubridy’s RTÉ earnings for 2020. There was never any suggestion otherwise.” She says the “guarantee on the Renault deal was not on the table when I left” and says she “fully briefed the CFO on all aspects of the top talent earnings prior to her departure”.
Current chief financial officer Richard Collins is asked by Brendan Griffin why he said there was only one barter account when we now know there are three. Mr Collins says there is only one barter account and says what he sees is effectively a summing up. “There is one barter account ... effectively three companies feed into it.”
Moya Doherty says the board was not aware of the existence of the barter account and says she has checked this with two of her former colleagues who were not aware of it either.
Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster starts by asking if it was the always the case that three companies fed into the one main barter account.
Mr Collins says it was two up to the end of 2021, when a third was added at the instigation of a client request.
Ms Munster then asks who wrote the note referring to the three accounts.
It was Commercial Director Geraldine O’Leary, her team and the comms team. The TD says the note is insulting the committee as it makes no reference to what the barter account was used for in reality, ie the Tubridy payments.
Ms Munster then talks about the “sneaky, underhand deal that was done” to pay Ryan Tubridy.
Ms O’Leary says. “I was not part of the intention to deceive” to which the TD responds “Give it a rest.”
“That’s my truth,” Ms O’Leary says. She ends that early exchange with a muted; “I did what I was told to do.”
Some early analysis from Jack Horgan-Jones.
There are clear battle lines now between the board and the executive. Siún Ní Raghallaigh is harshly critical of “inconsistency and lack of completeness” from the executive. She says this and the provision of information to the board has “eroded board confidence in the executive”.
Her predecessor, Moya Doherty, doubles down, saying there was a deliberate decision to keep the board out of the loop.
Breda O’Keeffe, the former chief financial officer, has given a very long and detailed opening statement that effectively argues that the process she was involved in to negotiate a new deal for Ryan Tubridy differed from the outcome in key ways – most importantly, she says a proposal for RTÉ to underwrite it was rejected by the broadcaster and the first she heard of it proceeding was last week.
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe was on RTÉ at lunchtime ostensibly to talk about the summer spending review. Most of the time was spent talking about this controversy.
Former chairwoman Moya Doherty’s opening statement:
“Firstly thank you for the opportunity to make an opening statement. RTÉ has for me, as for many, been a constant in my life, not merely as a source of information and debate on key national issues of culture and identity but in my case as a place where I learned my creative skills and built a career.
“So embedded is RTÉ in my psyche that when the details of this crisis began to unfold it left me both professionally and personally bewildered and devastated.
“As former Chair I am horrified by the extent of operations I and the Board had no knowledge of. We did not know because we were never told. But let me say that there were endless opportunities for (the relevant) executives to bring matters of concern to my attention, and have very open conversations with me. I met with executives in formal and informal situations very regularly, I was available to meet in person or on the phone anytime A deliberate decision was taken not to inform the Board of these issues.
“This should not have happened. What has come to light in the past few weeks confirms unacceptable behaviour and like many others there are questions I am looking forward to hearing comprehensive and detailed answers to. The latest revelations suggest that unfortunately more questions will arise as the crisis deepens. My sincere hope is that the Minister’s reviews can restore RTÉ to the levels of civic leadership and responsibility a public service media organisation ought to, and has to, represent.”
Opening statement from interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch:
“I want to state, at the outset, that we are here today to answer your questions to the best of our ability. I am acutely aware of the accusations of drip-feed, of non-cooperation and lack of transparency. We fully respect and understand this public concern, our staff’s concern, and the proper focus on accountability from the members of the Houses of the Oireachtas.
“I would like to apologise that, despite our best efforts, it was not possible to circulate many of the documents requested until late last night. Since the Committee’s list of requests was issued last Friday, staff across the organisation have been working over the past number of days to try and address this extensive list of queries raised by this Committee, along with the additional 31 other queries from the Public Accounts Committee.
“Several of the issues being explored extend back some years and require additional verification; other matters have legal implications and, as required, external legal counsel advice is being sought. All of this is being done with the intention that we provide as much information as possible, as early as possible.
“We remain mindful of the responsibilities of publishing this information, and we are treating the many complex issues arising from this investigation with due respect. We would also like to put on record to the members of this Committee, our profound regret, that as an Executive Board, the standards of governance on a number of issues was far lower than required.
“We extend our apology to the public, to our staff, our stakeholders and partners, and to you as public representatives, that our standards of transparency, and professionalism, fell short of what is rightly expected of us. RTÉ is comprised of extremely hard working, talented and capable people. The current crisis is in no way a reflection on their work, or the high levels of integrity with which they operate.
“RTÉ has been a valued organisation in Irish life. It has played a critical role in informing our democracy, in supporting the arts, in supporting Ireland’s creative and production sectors, in providing content for children, and for all audiences, in both languages, on radio, on television, and online, for almost 100 years. A public service media that does not enjoy public trust and confidence is missing its core purpose. We must work together to restore that purpose.”
The hearing has started. You can watch it on this page and we will be providing regular updates as the day goes on.
I can confirm that The Irish Times newsroom’s flip-flop budget over recent years has been €0.
Breda O’Keeffe, the former CFO of RTÉ from September 2012 to February 2020 will give the committee her recollection of the talks around Ryan Tubridy’s contract, the Renault deal and subsequent underwriting.
“Mr. Tubridy’s agent requested that the commercial agreement be underwritten by RTÉ, and this was refused. This continued to be my position and as far as I was aware, that of the Director General, the Head of Content and RTÉ solicitor up to the date of my departure from RTÉ in March 2020. I was not aware any guarantee had issued until I heard about it last week in media reports.”
“There isn’t anyone in control – there is a sense of free fall about this.” That is RTÉ correspondent Paul Cunningham’s bleak view of where we are now.
‘High probability that more information will emerge’
The Oireachtas media committee is to meet at 1:30pm. Here are some key points from the opening statement from RTÉ chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh.
“I am deeply unhappy at the evident pattern of inconsistency and lack of completeness in the provision of information to date by the Executive.
Regrettably, this pattern has persisted I believe there is a high probability that more information will emerge in the days and weeks ahead.
As a Board we cannot fulfil our role to the highest standards when we cannot rely on the information provided.
This is profoundly unsatisfactory as the work of the RTÉ Board obviously depends on the communication of timely and accurate information from the Executive.
This has eroded Board confidence in the Executive.
I know I will be asked if the Board has confidence in the executive.
Let me answer this as best I can. The Executive is made up of nine people ranging from news and current affairs to legal to human resources to finance and so on. It is a diverse team reflecting the diversity of our organisation and its business. For me to provide a blanket yes or no is deeply damaging to each of those individuals and the staff members that report to them.
If there is a confidence issue, then there is a due process for that which will be employed as necessary. I am taking legal advice on issues that are emerging. I would ask that the Committee respect that.
The incoming Director General Kevin Bakhurst, in consultation with the Deputy Director General Adrian Lynch, has indicated his intention to reconstitute the Executive.”
A cavalier approach to the spending of public money
The Irish Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Séamus Dooley has said NUJ members and their colleagues in RTÉ are “shellshocked” at the breakdown of expenditure released by the RTÉ Executive Board to Oireachtas Committees this morning.
In a statement, he said trade unions at RTÉ “have given RTÉ the time and space to provide information. It is impossible to respond to each new revelation but this morning’s figures have caused deep upset and unprecedented levels of anger. Our members are shellshocked.
“From extravagant entertainment to a failed commercial venture and bizarre spending on summer flip flops, these figures suggest a cavalier approach to the spending of public money and no amount of corporate speak can justify what has happened.
“The NUJ notes with particular concern the personal letter issued to Ryan Tubridy by then Director General, Dee Forbes, confirming that his salary would not be subject to cuts. This letter was issued six months after the unilateral suspension of increments and a few months before the imposition of pay cuts. The Director General opposed the filling of editorial posts, including temporary posts aimed at providing cover in the RTÉ newsroom during the Covid 19 pandemic.
The NUJ will join with other unions in seeking a meeting with the new Director General Kevin Bakhurst when he takes up duty to discuss how he proposes to address issues of staff morale which have now reached rock bottom.”
Another disquieting development ... full transparency has been absent
More from Jennifer Bray.
On one hand, RTÉ says it lost €2.2m on Toy Show the Musical. The situation is considered so significant that another Grant Thornton review has been commissioned into it. And yet, in another document sent to the Public Accounts Committee, the broadcaster is saying it is proud of the show.
The note says: “Overall RTÉ is very proud of the show. Developing and producing a new original musical is complex and difficult, but with a strong and experienced creative team and wonderful cast of child and adult actors, new original songs, beautiful staging, and a uniquely Irish family story, the feedback we have received from those attending the show has been very positive.
“While audiences were lower than we had hoped for, we are very heartened by the reaction of those that did attend, particularly children. Children today, with so many digital distractions are a challenging to engage, but children in particular were very taken with story and songs and that the show itself is led by a diverse cast of children like them.
“Clearly having to cancel a series of sold out/close to sold out shows on the 17th/18th of December due to cast/crew illness had a big impact on audience numbers, not just to the those shows but also the knock on impact to sentiment and word of mouth about the show over the Christmas period.”
Erosion of confidence
A new statement from Minister for Arts, Culture and the Media Catherine Martin has just landed.
“I have spoken to the Chair today and received an outline of the Board’s position, particularly around the deeply unsatisfactory nature in which information is being provided by the Executive.
She informed me that the Board has now written to the Deputy Director General and the incoming Director General outlining that this is totally unacceptable, and that it has eroded their trust and confidence in the Executive. In this context, the Board has requested that swift action be taken. The Chair will speak more on this issue at the Media Committee today.
I absolutely understand that erosion of confidence and it is imperative that full clarity around these, and all issues, are forthcoming without any further delay.
I am bringing my meeting with the Chair, acting DG and incoming DG forward to tomorrow. I intend to have the forensic accountant in place next week given the urgency of these matters.
The Chair also confirmed they will initiate a further Grant Thornton investigation of the Toy Show the Musical.”
With my Pricewatch hat on – I never take it off – I had to go and price alternatives for the flip flops for that summer Party. Five grand was spend on 200 pairs of Havaianas. Had the flip flops been bought in Penneys, the 200 pairs would have cost €260 – based on today’s prices.
That’s a saving of €4,760 right there.
Havaianas flip-flops
And still more on the spending from Jennifer Bray.
Nearly €5k on Havaianas flip-flops for a summer party “for agencies and clients.”
More than €2000 on balloons for the summer party.
Nearly €13k for Bruce Springsteen tickets for an agency event with the Head of Sales.
There was €1,300 for 20 clients at an Amy Schumer concert.
There is also an €840 for a dinner Tribeca for the head of sports sponsorship for a leaving dinner with “the team.” 40 guests were put up at Powerscourt Hotel in Wicklow for Dancing With the Stars, worth €3,800.
Barter Account Spending
More details on the spending from Jennifer Bray:
In 2019, some €3,076 was spent on House of Fraser vouchers for “prizes as donations to agency and client events and gifts as appropriate to clients, weddings, babies etc”.
Hotels listed on the Astus Account for pre 2019 include: €2,770 at the Grand at Trafalgar Square for staff and clients for the Ireland v England 6 Nations Rugby match, for which €831 appears to have been refunded.
There is €4,568 listed as “alcohol” but with no description.
There is a €5,110 transaction for the Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh for clients and senior staff at the Ireland v Scotland 6 Nations Match.
Some €769 was spent at the Other Voices festival for two senior members of an agency. There is also a transaction simply labelled “Fiat” for €18,201 for the group head of commercial.
Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has just said he plans to add RTÉ to the list of commercial State sector companies subject to the formal oversight of the NewEra unit in the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
NewEra provides financial and commercial advice to Government Ministers and departments in relation to 18 designated State-owned companies.
Speaking to reporters at the unveiling of the NTMA’s annual report, Mr McGrath said the Government had already been considering adding RTÉ to the list of companies designated to the NTMA. He said RTÉ’s payments scandal has “confirmed that we were making the right decision”.
The move is expected to be formally announced in the coming weeks.
It might be worth pausing at this point to reflect on the television licence.
It costs €160.
If you don’t have a TV licence and you do have a television, you could face a court appearance. If convicted, you could be fined €1,000 for a first offence and €2,000 for subsequent offences. If you have been fined and you breach court orders directing you to pay the television licence, you can be imprisoned.
Now, let’s move on.
The full spending on RTÉ's controversial barter accounts has been revealed in documents sent to the Oireachtas Committee on Media, reports Jennifer Bray. You might want to set your outrageoumeter to stunned.
Copies of the accounts, seen by The Irish Times, show transactions for exclusive clubs, top-range hotels, golf outings, concerts and restaurants and tens of thousands of euro on flights for sporting events.
Ten-year IRFU tickets cost €138,000. The transactions for 2022 show payments of €9,000 at the Aviva Stadium for Harry Styles, Westlife and The Eagles.
It shows a transaction for €874 to pay for a driver for Noel Kelly Management – the agency representing stars like Ryan Tubridy – MD Niamh Tyndall because she was “eight months pregnant” when she attended an event.
There is a membership worth €2,306 for the exclusive Soho House in London, a luxury members-only club. This was to “facilitate UK meetings”.
There was a €1,469 dinner in Isabelle’s restaurant in Dublin, and multiple spends for accommodation for staff for Renault events.
Some €2,481 is recorded for hospitality for the Garth Brooks concert.
In 2021, there was a €599 transaction for the Dylan Hotel in Dublin for a client.
There was a transaction for €3,861 for an executive board meeting that cancelled but which RTÉ says it was “hit with full charges” for.
There are a large amount of transactions for 2019 and the years pre-2019. In 2019, there are transactions for Forest Avenue restaurant to the value of €662, four rooms at the Dylan Hotel for €2,232, a meal at the Trocadero Restaurant for €947, a meal in Dax restaurant for €638 and a meal in The Ivy restaurant with an agency for €1,400.
Some €70,000 is recorded for flights for the Rugby World Cup in Japan with the head of sales and clients.
In 2019, some €13,730 was spent on entertaining clients and agencies at Ed Sheeran in Croke Park.
And Labour Party Senator Maria Sherlock was on the same programme.
“The bombshell that we got last night is absolutely outrageous with regards to this information – that there is more than one barter account. When you look back at all the interactions we talked about the barter accounts and really there is this sense of complete disarray within RTÉ now about its finances and about how it operates.
“And I must say, looking at the documents late last night and early this morning, the letter from Dee Forbes to Ryan Tubridy in July 2020. And bear in mind, this is, of course, in the middle of the pandemic.
“None of us knew when the pandemic was going to end, and this guarantee for over a five-year term, because that was the duration of the contract, of no reductions to be sought from Ryan Tubridy. Yet just eight months later RTÉ was out saying to its staff we need to get pay cuts from you to put the organisation into better financial shape.
“And again, 12 months later it was having to try and make good some of the employment practices that the bogus overpayment practices that it had in the organisation for many years. So I was gobsmacked at what we’re learning, I think, with regards to the Toy Show (the musical).
“Actual revenues were only about 15 per cent of the forecast revenues. The phrase flop has been used, but that’s more than a flop. That is an absolute disaster in terms of the planning that went into that show and how it could have failed so badly with public money.” Vivienne Clarke
Fianna Fáil senator Malcolm Byrne was talking on the Claire Byrne Show a few minutes ago.
Here is what he had to say.
“It’s my view that they (Tubridy and Kelly) should be asked to appear in public. I think in the same way that we have invited other witnesses to appear so that the testimony would be available not just to us, who are members of the Oireachtas media committee, but indeed to the wider public and to license fee payers.
“We’re now moving toward the third week of dealing with this crisis. And I think the drip, drip, drip effect is causing huge damage to RTÉ. And I think obviously, particularly to a lot of those who are continuing to work very hard here in the broadcaster to keep programmes on the air. It’s very tough on them.
“Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spindoctor, he said that if something is still a crisis after 11 days, then you’ve got to deal with it. And I think decisions are going to have to be taken. We clearly haven’t got complete transparency.” Vivienne Clarke
There are some lighter letters too.
Like this one from Beth Neal.
Sir, – Does RTÉ's barter account extend to the TV licence fee and will it accept a portion of the beetroot glut from my allotment for its canteen, in exchange for one year’s renewal? – Yours, etc,
BETH NEAL,
At least we think she’s joking.
You can read them all here.
Sir, – I viewed most of Thursday’s (June 29th) session of the PAC at which RTÉ staff were questioned. As a recently retired solicitor, I cannot understand why any potential witness would co-operate with the PAC, based on what I saw.
In all the courts and tribunals that I appeared in over 34 years, there was always one constant: that witnesses were treated with respect and were allowed to answer questions uninterrupted within reason.
In what I saw, the PAC members, with few exceptions, barracked and hectored the witnesses.
Just the start of a really interesting letter to the editor from John Mark Downey
“Rarely, in the patchy history of enthusiastic Dáil speechifying, have TDs been so eager to get stuck in. Lesser spotted deputies, those mute swans of parliamentary discourse, sashayed into the chamber and spouted with relish.
In an unusual mass mobilisation from Leinster House and Government Buildings, the country’s politicians united in the common cause of going through the powers-that-be in RTÉ for a short cut.”
Miriam Lord is in flying form this morning.
And
Just a snippet of the correspondence entering the public realm in recent hours.
They’re not gladiators
Broadcast and legal historian at the School of History in UCC and a member of the Future of Media Commission, Dr Finola Doyle-O’Neill told Morning Ireland that the Oireachtas Media Committee members today should be “mindful that they’re not gladiators going into a Roman amphitheatre to devour their prey, they have to be very respectful.”
“We do want answers. We don’t want people to go away and start lawyering up, so to speak, if they’re treated in a sort of disrespectful fashion. Dr Doyle-O’Neill praised the “ordinary” workers at RTÉ who had come in front of the story and had been very brave at a time when the governance and culture in RTÉ had been “rotten from the top”.
With regard to the pending reports, she said “a lot of people, with a lot of expertise” had put a lot of work into them and they should not be left “dangling on the shelf”.
NEWS BREAKING NOW:
This just in from Jennifer Bray.
Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly have volunteered to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Media next week in a significant development.
In a letter to the committee this morning, their solicitor said: “Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly wish to fully co-operate and assist with your committee’s investigations. They believe that they have important information that will assist the committee.”
The duo will meet the committee privately and then appear for public questioning. Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne welcomed the willingness of the pair to come before the committee and said their contributions will be beneficial.
The Committee is understood to be happy to facilitate the presenter and his agent and are willing to sit through the summer.
Quick reaction to the Tubridy letter.
“The wrath of the country rains down on RTÉ for a third week and it’s too easy to see why. It is Dublin 4, a semistate company and a slush fund. Irish media stars with notions. An elusive superagent in pinstripes. A rugby element (tickets, pampered advertising types, restaurants). Slews of lesser-known politicians turned daytime TV stars.
Add in the one third of the population that says it never trusted RTÉ anyway – too lefty, too woke, not enough GAA – and sometimes, the plots just write themselves.”
Kathy Sheridan is well worth a few moments of your time today.
You need to have your homework done
Michael McGrath worked as a financial controller in the independent radio sector at one point before his political career and told Morning Ireland he was familiar with the concept of barter accounts, which had been known as contra accounts in his day.
“They are a normal part of the commercial practice of commercial radio stations in particular, to have two parties involved in any given transaction. In many instances it would be an exchange of services in two directions sometimes, which would cancel each other out in value terms, and there may be no cash changing hands.
“But the important thing is, from a disclosure point of view, that you report the substance of that transaction. And clearly in the case of the payments to Mr. Tubridy that was channelled through this barter account. The substance of those transactions was not reported or certainly revealed publicly into published information in relation to salaries.
“There is nothing inherently wrong with barter accounts. They are part of commercial life, but you need to make sure that you have full disclosure of all of the information.”
He added that “mistakes can be made. Being before an Oireachtas committee is a highly pressurised environment, it’s not an easy experience for people who perhaps aren’t used to it.. But you need to have your homework done. You have to be fully prepared and briefed. And that particular question [about barter accounts] was one that I think could have been eagerly anticipated.”
They need to lance the boil
Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has called for full disclosure and transparency from RTÉ.
“They need to lance the boil and the only way to do that is to be fully open with all of the information at their disposal, and then we can begin to move through all of that and set up the independent reviews that Minister Martin has confirmed, allow the forensic accountant to do his or her work and move on from there,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
There needed to be a comprehensive explanation about how incorrect information was given to the Oireachtas committees last week, he added.
“It may well have been a genuine mistake, we all make mistakes. But you would expect the executive team to have been fully briefed and prepared before going before the Oireachtas committee because they would have known that was not going to be an easy experience,” Mr McGrath said.
“And given that the barter account, the original one, was the very heart of the payments controversy. It was, I think, a question that was easily anticipated as to whether or not there were other barter accounts. So you look at it ... they need to come before the committee today and just reveal all the information that they have and explain why the information last week on that particular issue was inaccurate. But the wider problem here is just this drip, drip of information that’s been going on for the last couple of weeks.” Vivienne Clarke
RTÉ had been due to send documents to the Oireachtas media committee at midday on Tuesday in advance of today’s meeting on Wednesday, but missed that deadline, promising to submit them before the end of business hours. They were eventually sent late last night.
The documents included some details of RTÉ's advertising rates and discounts applied, as well as the contract held with the company controlled by Patrick Kielty, the new host of The Late Late Show. It also enclosed correspondence between Dee Forbes and Ryan Tubridy in which she confirmed in writing that fees set out in a five-year contract “will be paid by RTÉ without any reductions and RTÉ shall not make any request or inquiry from you in relation to a reduction in the agreed fees”. A letter of agreement to the early termination of Mr Tubridy’s contract in 2020 is also included.
Correspondence with NK Management, Ryan Tubridy’s agent’s company, outlines details of events with Renault, including expenses of €500. There is also data on the 100 top earners in RTÉ, featuring 84 employees and 16 contractors, including 10 in the executive, 59 in other management functions and 31 in presenting or non-management roles.
The data is anonymised but shows the highest fee was €515,000, the second-highest €343,083. The lowest figure on documents seen by The Irish Times was €116,851.
Jack Horgan-Jones has more of the details.
Oireachtas Media Committee chairwoman Niamh Smyth said she was “struggling” to have confidence in the RTÉ executive board amid the deepening payments controversy at the broadcaster.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning she said she did not know if there had been a conspiracy or a cock-up in relation to the payments controversy and added that it spoke volumes that the head of commercial at RTÉ did not realise there were three barter accounts.
The Fianna Fáil TD said she and the other members of the Oireachtas Media Committee were very angry that this information had not been given to them earlier so they could scrutinise the details.
It appeared that the information given last week “was not wholly accurate” and that would compound the anger already there, she said. “I want to give those executives an opportunity to come in this morning to explain.”
When asked if she had confidence in the RTÉ executive, Ms Smyth said she struggled with how tenable the position of the board was. “My God, you’d be scratching your head asking yourself of these people: is it incompetence or is it a dysfunctionality?”
Ms Smyth said she thought Minister for Arts and Media Catherine Martin will “be hitting the nuclear button” to bring in an external examiner “to really get into” what has gone on in terms of the financial dealings of RTÉ and the commercial entities”. Vivienne Clarke.
Any chance that those executives might have run out of things to say were dashed last night with after the broadcaster confirmed it had discovered more barter accounts despite saying last week that there was only one of such account.
“Comment and context” on the three other barter accounts have been promised for today. And in case you don’t know – how could you not at this stage? – a barter account is one linked to a system through which a media company uses its advertising space to pay for certain goods and services. Colm Keena has a full primer for you on how barter accounts work.
Good morning and welcome to Day 13,455 of the RTÉ in Crisis saga and if anything things are getting worse. I’m Conor Pope, and I will be handling the Live Story on what promises to be a day of more revelations as top executives from the national broadcaster – past and present – are set to appear before an Oireachtas committee hearing for the third time since this day last week. While it might feel longer, it has actually been just under two weeks since it emerged that Ryan Tubridy was paid €345,000 more than his published fees over a six-year period in a series of hidden transactions, and since that revelation there has been a steady drip-feed of information suggesting that the payments to the presenter were only the start of it.
