EMPLOYMENT:GEORGE LEE will be able to return to work with RTÉ on the same basic grade and salary he held previously, a spokeswoman for the organisation confirmed last night.
Mr Lee, who announced his resignation from Fine Gael and the Dáil yesterday, was RTÉ’s economics editor until his victory in the Dublin South byelection in June of last year.
The spokeswoman confirmed Mr Lee had been granted an unpaid leave of absence from RTÉ, which, she said, was due to end at the beginning of May.
“The normal situation is that a member of staff on leave of absence is assured of employment within RTÉ on their return, but not necessarily to the position which they left,” she said.
The spokeswoman said RTÉ had not yet heard from Mr Lee about his intentions at the end of the period of leave of absence. Mr Lee said yesterday he planned to return to RTÉ, though he declined to say in what role.
The spokeswoman said she could not confirm Mr Lee’s salary when he was economics editor, although sources last night indicated it could have been in excess of €150,000.
A TD who has incurred no long-service increments earns a basic salary of €92,672. Previously the basic salary was €100,191.
Speaking generally about people in such situations, a well-placed RTÉ source said last night: “The expectation is that they would have to be editorially quarantined for a period.”
Asked if Mr Lee would have to be “editorially quarantined” on his return, the RTÉ spokeswoman said this was an editorial decision to be taken on a case-by-base basis.
“When somebody is involved in politics it would be taken into consideration in terms of their return, but there is no specific timeframe,” she said.
“It certainly would come up as an issue for someone very much involved in politics.”
Meanwhile, there was some speculation last night that Mr Lee could fill the role of Washington correspondent. Last week RTÉ confirmed that its current correspondent in Washington Charlie Bird was to be replaced.
Mr Bird will return to his previous position as chief news correspondent after just a year of his four-year posting in the US and his replacement will be chosen internally by RTÉ.
An informed source within the station last night dismissed the speculation about Mr Lee filling the US position, saying it was “just people putting two and two together”.
When Mr Lee was elected he told Seán O'Rourke, presenter of RTÉ Radio One's News at Oneprogramme: "I am now unconstrained by RTÉ." After Mr Lee took his leave of absence from the State broadcaster, RTÉ said it regretted the move.
He discussed his controversial decision to change careers on Miriam O'Callaghan's RTÉ Radio One programme, Miriam Meets, last month, during a joint interview with Charlie Bird.
During the interview with O’Callaghan, Mr Lee said: “It’s very early days in the politics really for me . . . It’s six months since I entered the Dáil . . . I just think that things take time to pan out . . .
“I’m kind of finding my feet. I don’t have any particular portfolio to speak about as such although I can’t help speaking about economic matters and so it takes time. I’m not in any way worried that I have less influence, I think that you have to grow it.
“You can’t expect to arrive and suddenly flick on a switch . . . it takes time,” he also said on the programme.
“I won’t be hanging around for a decade or anything like that unless I have an influence. I’m not going to waste my life.”
Mr Bird, who with Mr Lee broke the story of the scandal at National Irish Bank, said he did not wish to comment on Mr Lee’s move yesterday. Mr Lee is understood to have told his parliamentary assistant and his secretary of his intentions yesterday morning.