Minister to meet senior RTÉ figures on Friday as ‘barter account’ report expected shortly

Minister for Arts and Media Catherine Martin is set to break her media silence following a meeting with senior RTÉ figures on Friday.

Ms Martin has not spoken to the press in well over a month, after she met incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst just prior to his appointment.

On Friday she will meet Mr Bakhurst and RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh in the wake of major developments at the national broadcaster in the intervening period, as licence fee income dwindles further and the station parted ways with star presenter Ryan Tubridy.

She is expected to brief the media afterwards. Ms Martin’s spokesman has said she has been working on the RTÉ issue and spoke with Ms Ní Raghallaigh twice last week.

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It is understood the three will meet at about midday and discuss performance, progress made on reform, governance and the future of the station – as well as the so-called Grant Thornton II report which found that RTÉ artificially lowered Mr Tubridy’s income to a level below €500,000 annually in the period 2017-2019, but that the presenter had no role in bringing this to pass.

She is also likely to have an interim report on hand for the meeting from forensic accountants at Mazars, who were commissioned to look at the use of the so-called barter accounts.

These accounts, which are used in the broadcasting industry as part of trade deals, came to public attention as payments of €150,000 to Mr Tubridy were funnelled through them labelled as “consultancy services”. These were in fact payments due under a deal between Mr Tubridy, Renault Ireland and RTÉ which the broadcaster agreed to backstop financially and which were not disclosed as part of Mr Tubridy’s published pay for 2020 and 2021.

It is expected the report will analyse the use of the barter account and make a judgment about how the wider system worked.

Meanwhile, the latest television licence fee figures show revenue from licence sales has continued to fall, but at a slower rate than previously. Some 9,041 licences were sold in the third week of August (the latest week for which figures are available). This compares with 12,507 in the same period last year – a drop of 28 per cent and a loss of €554,560 in revenue. Sales were down 37 per cent in the third week of July.