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RTÉ pay crisis shows no signs of abating as further revelations emerge

IT Sunday: Fintan O’Toole writes that RTÉ abandoned public interest during Covid, while David McWilliams explains how Ireland became the most expensive country in Europe

RTÉ employees during a protest at Montrose following revelations of undisclosed payments to Ryan Tubridy. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

Sun Jul 2 2023 - 08:00

Welcome to this week’s IT Sunday, a selection of the best Irish Times journalism for our subscribers.

It was a week in which the RTÉ pay crisis rumbled on and more revelations emerged with the appearance of the broadcaster’s senior executives first at the Oireachtas committee on media on Wednesday and then at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday.

In his weekend column, Fintan O’Toole writes that RTÉ abandoned the public interest during Covid and capitulated to Ryan Tubridy’s tone-deaf demands: “At the same time as Forbes was meeting Kelly in April 2022 and setting in train the secret payments that would cost RTÉ – and thus the Irish public – €230,760, thousands of other people were also waiting for their money,” he writes.

“Frontline healthcare workers, who had gone in every day to deal with the sick, the dying and the dead, at risk to their own lives and health – student nurses and midwives, Army personnel deployed to testing and vaccination centres, paramedics, hospice staff and people working in disability services – had yet to receive a promised bonus payment.

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“How much was it? All told, €1,000.”

Miriam Lord was at the Oireachtas on Wednesday and Thursday for both appearances of RTÉ executives and gave her take in her column both evenings. On neither occasion did the RTÉ representatives come out well.

After Wednesday’s media committee, she asked: “where is Dee Forbes? Under the bus, was the general consensus in the committee room”. By all accounts Wednesday was somewhat of a more sedate affair than what was the follow, Lord writing that “in the fast-moving world of popular meeting room dramas, RTÉ's latest offering – Much Ado about Nothing to Do with Us – fell short of the high standard of entertainment expected these days.”

However, that would all change on Thursday when the Public Accounts Committee began to shed some light on just what exactly RTÉ had used their now-famous barter account for – one example being a €275,000 spend on corporate hospitality at sporting events including the 2019 Rugby World Cup and Champions League final – while also revealing that the chief financial officer Richard Collins did not know what his salary was.

On those revelations, Lord wrote that it was a terrible day for the RTÉ team, thoroughly demolished by the PAC and with a rematch on the cards.

Wrapping it all up is Arthur Beesley, Jack Horgan-Jones and Emmett Malone giving a day-by-day account of Montrose’s darkest week.

With the RTÉ saga set to continue into next week it’s worth remembering that there are other things going on as well, so let’s move from secret payments made by the State broadcaster to Ireland becoming the most expensive country in Europe, according to latest data published by Eurostat.

In his column this weekend, David McWilliams explains how this has happened, with the fiscal incontinence of RTÉ acting as a good example: “When we break down inflation over the past 20 years a distinct pattern emerges: wherever the Government is involved, inflation and costs have been far greater than areas of the economy where the State has no or little role. Fiscal incontinence is affecting us all,” he writes.

“In contrast, those areas where the State has no involvement – such as as clothing, footwear, furniture, household appliances and consumer electronics – show that Irish prices are in line with or slightly lower than EU averages.”

In sport, it’s All-Ireland football championship quarter-finals weekend. After Kerry saw off Tyrone and Monaghan beat Armagh on Saturday, Sunday sees the turn of Derry and Cork at 1.45pm and then old rivalries are renewed when Dublin meet Mayo at 4pm.

In his column this week, Jim McGuinness wrote that possession football is the trend in this year’s championship but now, with only the cream of the crop remaining, they can influence what teams will do next year: “We have seen some teams are now starting to challenge the status quo in relation to the possession-based game. And for me, if a successful team emerges with a different style and manages to put that possession-based tactic to the sword, 2024 could see Gaelic football shift again in a different trajectory,” he writes.

One of our most read articles this week was Trish Murphy’s advice column from Wednesday in which a reader wrote that she and her husband are at their wits’ end with their adult daughter still living at home and her boyfriend now also beginning to settle in the house: “Their plans to go travelling, instead of focusing on their careers, concern us as the current situation will likely resume when they return,” the reader wrote.

In this week’s restaurant review, Corinna Hardgrave visited Space Jaru on Meath Street in Dublin – a Korean spot which she awards four stars to and writes is “a great spot for lunch, an early dinner or a relaxed evening of dining.”

In a busy week of concerts around Dublin, two reviews that stood out were that of Sting, with special guests Blondie, at Malahide Castle (four stars from Glen Murphy) and The Weeknd at Marlay Park, which also got a four-star review from Kevin Courtney.

In her advice column this week, Roe McDermott responds to a reader who says that she first met her boyfriend when he was in a relationship but now she’s worried that he’s cheating on her.

In this week’s On the Money newsletter, Dominic Coyle is writing about gift cards and what you can do if a shop refuses yours. Sign up here to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox every Friday.

As always, there is much more on irishtimes.com, including rundowns of all the latest movies in our film reviews, tips for the best restaurants in our food section and all the latest in sport. There are plenty more articles exclusively available for Irish Times subscribers here.

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