RTÉ pay crisis: Donnelly raises prospect of Garda involvement as fresh hearings set for next week

RTÉ pay controversy: Where are we now?

• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said revelations at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday about RTÉ's barter account were “a matter of real concern”, and suggested that accounting rules and company law may have been breached at the station.
• The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said An Garda Siochana should be notified of any alleged financial fraud at RTÉ.
• ‘Real fear among independent television producers that crisis will hit its capacity to commission Irish programming says Shinawil boss Larry Bass.
• ‘Keeping a small number of boys sweet’ was driving force behind some working at RTÉ says NUJ’s Dooley
• Oireachtas media committee set to meet again next week as crisis deepens
• RTÉ executives appeared at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on Thursday where the broadcaster was accused of using a “slush fund” to spend €275,000 on corporate hospitality in Japan and Spain and on Irish Rugby Football Union tickets.
• Former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, broadcaster Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly fall within the categories of persons who may be compelled to attend before the Public Accounts Committee, our legal affairs correspondent Mary Carolan reports
• Chairwoman of the RTÉ board Siún Ní Raghallaigh said the reporting of the payments to Ryan Tubridy were an act “designed to deceive”.
• PAC chairman Brian Stanley said the PAC will soon seek powers to compel former director general Dee Forbes to appear when “it is medically appropriate to do so”.
• Interim RTÉ director general Adrian Lynch said “it’s possible” that Ryan Tubridy was told that the payments issue had arisen before he stood down from the Late late Show.

Best reads:

• RTÉ's PAC hearing: 10 things we learned on an ‘extraordinary’ day – Jennifer Bray
• How RTÉ’s darkest week played out
• Our lead story from Friday morning: RTÉ pay crisis deepens over use of €275,000 from ‘slush fund’ for sports junkets
• Miriam Lord: A terrible day for the RTÉ team, thoroughly demolished by the PAC and with a rematch on the cards
• Justine McCarthy: Tubridy is paying a high price for not exposing RTÉ's deceit
• Colm Keena explains what a barter account is

Another busy day in the RTE payments controversy - although not nearly as busy as yesterday. All those involved will no doubt be hoping for a quieter weekend than last weekend but if any of the key players think the crisis is running out of steam they are sorely mistaken with more hearings next week and almost certainly more stories to uncover. All the news as it happens will be found on The Irish Times site over the weekend and - obviously - throughout next week.

The Minister for Arts, Culture and the Media has requested another meeting with the RTÉ chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh and the incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst with a view to discussing topics, including the external review of culture and corporate governance in RTE and Mr Bakurst’s plans to reconstitute the executive board. Other things on the agenda are likely to be the Grant Thornton review looking into payments to Ryan Tubridy from 2017 to 2019. and wider engagements with RTÉ staff.

For the first time in what seems like an eternity, the main evening news on RTÉ has not opened with the secret payments scandal that has engulfed the station for more than a week. The sentencing of former deputy chairman An Bord Pleanála Paul Hyde to two months in prison was the first story in the bulletin. The scandal wasn’t far behind it with the second story focusing on the comments from the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the meeting of the Oireachtas media committee next Wednesday.

Who can PAC make appear before it?

What powers of compellability does the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have in relation to those RTÉ staff who have refused to appear in front of the committee to date. Here’s our legal affairs correspondent Mary Carolan.

Former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, broadcaster Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly fall within the categories of persons who may be compelled to attend before the Public Accounts Committee.

The Houses of the Oireachtas Inquiries, Procedure and Privileges Act provides that, in general, any person in the State, any Irish citizen outside the State or any person on an Irish-registered vessel, aircraft or on an Irish diplomatic mission may be compelled to appear before a committee once the latter meets certain criteria.

Exceptions exist in certain circumstances for a limited number of people, including the President, Attorney General and judges.

A committee seeking to compel the attendance of certain witnesses must, under the Act, follow a two-stage process.

First, the Act requires it must have the power “to send for persons, papers and records”, meaning the committee can insist upon the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers and other material. The PAC has that power.

The second stage involves applying to the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight (CPPO) for permission to compel. It is believed the CPP would be likely to grant permission to the PAC to direct Ms Forbes, Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly to attend.

‘Real fear’ RTÉ won’t be able to pay for programming

There is “a real fear” among independent television producers that the current crisis at RTÉ will further hit the broadcaster’s ability to commission Irish programming made outside of Montrose, according to Shinawil boss Larry Bass.

Mr Bass said the controversy, which started over payments made to Ryan Tubridy but has come to come to include criticisms of a barter account by the organisation, has the potential to do huge damage to RTÉ and, by extension, the many people who depend on it both employees and those in the independent sector.

“RTÉ is the biggest contributor to the independent sector in the country and this is a real threat to it,” said the head of the company best known for producing Dancing With The Stars and Home of the Year.

Mr Bass resigned from the RTÉ board himself two years ago to ensure a contract for Dancing With The Stars was renewed when, he says, two other board suggested there might be the perception of a conflict of interest if it were to be renewed while he was a member.

He says the broadcaster spent around €42 million on independent productions last year, well down on the €82 million it put into the sector during the year before the crash but the broadcaster remains a vitally source of work for companies like his and that, he says, is now under threat.

“License Fee revenue is already an issue for them and there’s been a tsunami of lost commercial revenue even before this across the entire media industry, they’re close to their borrowing limits as I understand it and Government is not suddenly going to fund them while this goes on so it may be that they end up with no more room for manoeuvre.

“We (production companies) have a real fear that they will not be able to pay for programming.”

There are very strong words in the Irish Examiner today from former RTÉ presenter Gareth O’Callaghan. He had some choice words to say about Ryan Tubridy. “Tubridy’s radio show is 53 minutes long. He has a dedicated team of six. This week he betrayed his team, his work colleagues, and his listeners and viewers who welcomed him into their homes. You can’t have secret financial deals for your own personal gain, and then try to pawn off the blame for not being able to account publicly for them when you get caught.” You can read his column here. Gareth O’Callaghan: I worked for RTÉ for 17 years. Time to tell a story I have never told before (irishexaminer.com)

By David Raleigh

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, said Friday that An Garda Siochana should be notified of any alleged financial fraud at RTE.

The national pubic service broadcaster is fighting for its survival after it emerge it paid undisclosed sums of public money to former star host of The Late Late Show, Ryan Tubridy.

Speaking in Limerick, Minister Donnelly said: “A submission will have to go to the gardai, I would imagine that will happen, and then obviously it will be for the gardai to take a look into that.”

“There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered in terms of this particular situation, I thought there was some very concerning testimony heard yesterday at the Public Accounts Committee.”

“I think there were was a reference from the (RTE) board to potential ‘deception’ - I think ‘fraud’ was mentioned by one member of the board - these are serious things that we are hearing from the board,” said Mr Donnelly.

Asked if a more in depth inquiry - apart from a proposed review by Media minister Catherine Martin - should take place and involve gardai, Mr Donnelly said the terms of reference of minister Martin’s review had not yet been signed of on, but that he had “no doubt minister Martin will be presenting to government terms of reference that are sufficient to address the issues that have raised”.

Mr Donnelly said he was aware Ms Martin has “engaged very closely with RTE” and that it was “a matter for the gardai” themselves to decide if they were to launch a criminal investigation .

“Ultimately, there needs to be full transparency, the Irish public need to know and the people working in RTE need to know exactly what happened, why it happened and how it happened,” Mr Donnelly continued.

He said RTE needed to emerge from the scandal “reformed and stronger, because never before has it been more important to have a strong public broadcaster, (and) independent media across the country”.

“We live in a world of increasing misinformation and disinformation online with social media more and more now we are going to see AI generate false news and it is going to become harder and harder for people to differentiate between fact and fiction online.”

Asked if he believed there ought to be a clean-out of RTE executives, Mr Donnelly replied: “What we need to do now is gather the facts, I imagine the Oireachtas committees will seek further hearings and we need to sign off and get this (government) review (of RTE) going so that we can understand the full picture.”

NUJ Ireland organiser Seamus Dooley has quoted Al Capone in relation to RTÉ and its lavish treatment of advertising clients.

In a statement issued after a meeting of the NUJ Dublin Broadcasting branch on he spoke of a “sweet racket if you can keep the boys in line”.

He said there is no cost that you can put on the loss of public trust. The incoming Director General needs to engage with the Trade Union Group in RTÉ in relation to the unfolding scandal as a matter of urgency, he believes.

“It is clear to me that the imperative of keeping the boys sweet was the driving force of those in RTÉ who view commercial success as the benchmark by which Ireland’s public service broadcaster can be judged. Keeping a small number of boys sweet.

“My message to government today is that employment and services in RTÉ must be protected.

“The financial crisis in RTÉ has not been trigged by corporate governance failure but by inaction on funding and on the licence collection system.

“The corporate governance failures have compounded the crisis but have come at a heavy high cost. The cost of the secret deals, the sweetheart arrangements, and the malpractices which we have long highlighted is far greater than the figures quoted at PAC or provided by financial analysis.”

He also called on both Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly to appear in front of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Political reporter Jack Horgan-Jones writes:

“The Public Accounts Committee is preparing for a legal battle with RTÉ over a key document relating to the Ryan Tubridy payments controversy.

The document is a note taken by an RTÉ lawyer of an online meeting between Noel Kelly, agent to Mr Tubridy, and then Director General Dee Forbes.

RTÉ executives said that it was at this meeting where Ms Forbes agreed to underwrite a deal between the station, Renault and Mr Tubridy which was to see the firm pay €75,000 annually to Mr Tubridy, in exchange for a credit note reducing the cost of their services with RTÉ.

However, the broadcaster agreed to underwrite the deal, which ultimately led to them paying €150,000 to Mr Tubridy through the now-infamous “barter account”, which has been termed a ‘slush fund’ in the Oireachtas this week.

RTÉ's head of legal, Paula Mulloolly told the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday that she would “have an issue” with releasing the file, which was being sought by Labour TD for Tipperary Alan Kelly.

“I have an issue in the context of this matter where there is a number of active and threatened litigation and I need to protect the legal professional privilege in respect of this matter,” she said on Thursday.

However, Public Accounts Committee chair Brian Stanley, Sinn Féin TD for Laois-Offaly, said it was “vital” that the document be released.

“They can waive their privilege and legally we can look at powers of compellability,” which he said could be extended over documents. He said the secretariat to his committee is examining the issue of compellability.

Adrian Lynch, the acting RTÉ director general, told the Oireachtas media committee this week that there was no record of the deal outside the verbal agreement.

RTÉ has been asked for a statement on whether it will give renewed consideration to releasing the note.

A meeting of the RTÉ branch of the NUJ has stopped short of voting a motion of no confidence in the Executive Board of the broadcaster - yet.

Instead, the branch is likely to issue a statement soon expressing extreme dissatisfaction with the executive team, with the wording still being tied down. A source said those present were “not happy with culture in organisation under their stewardship.”

It is understood that members expressed some support for Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins after two difficult days for him in front of Oireachtas committees, with some present of the view that he has improved the finance function in RTÉ since coming in.

Check out our In The News podcast with the latest on the RTÉ saga.

Podcast: RTÉ under fire at the PAC – The Irish Times

‘Nobody shouted stop for a number of years’

Finance Minister Michael McGrath has warned that RTE can’t “hold anything back, warts and all” and needs to be put all of the “relevant information” on the table about the deal it made with Ryan Tubridy, writes Olivia Kelleher.

Speaking in Cork, Minister McGrath urged RTE to be as open and transparent as possible.

“Those are questions which have yet to be answered and I do think need to be urgently answered by RTE. We haven’t seen RTE yet meet the standard of full openness and transparency.

He said it was “hard to believe that they don’t have the information. A proper trawl through the records would reveal essentially what happened here. There seems to be lots of people with bits of information, but nobody able to tell the whole story”.

Those who have more information are duty bound to come before the relevant committees to tell their story because we have to put this jigsaw together. And so far there are gaps. The information is incomplete.”

Minister McGrath stressed that Ireland has “established processes in place” for considering whether there has been a breach of accountancy rules or company law matters at RTE.

“I think we should just allow the authorities concerned to consider whether or not there is sufficient evidence for them to become involved in this matter.

“But in the first instance I think we still have a journey to go to get all of the answers that are needed. I think the only way through this for RTE is to put all of the information on the table and just reveal everything.”

Minister McGrath added that RTE made a “very bad decision” to enter in to this pay arrangement with Ryan Tubridy.

“It would appear that nobody shouted ‘stop’ for a number of years. I understand that the Media committee, and indeed the Public Accounts Committee, have further questions that they will want to have answered so I think we need to allow that process to take its course.

“But RTE need to put all of the relevant information on the table, not hold anything back warts and all. It is the only way they will be able to eventually move on. I would ask them to be as open and transparent as possible because there is a lot of public concern about what has emerged, a lot of information was provided over the course of nine hours of committee hearings over two days.

He said that info would have “to be sifted through and considered. But I think some questions undoubtedly remain unanswered including fundamentally how did this arrangement in relation to Ryan Tubridy’s fees get designed, how did it come in to being in the first place?

And then the way in which it was reported in the accounts….how it was accounted for internally? And why was it for a number of years his actual earnings were not accurately reported in the published figures?”

A distance to go

If you thought we were done with the Oireachtas hearings into the national broadcaster you were very wrong indeed.

The Oireachtas Committee on Media is to invite members of the RTÉ Executive and Board to appear before it again next Wednesday.

While the nature of the hearing will depend on legal advice, the committee is also likely to issue invitations to former RTÉ director general Noel Curran, former RTÉ chair Moya Doherty and former chief financial officer Breda O’Keefe.

Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly will not be invited for now, as it was felt by members that there was still a “distance to go” with RTÉ management and board members.

A Cavan councillor believes “telephone salaries” paid to certain RTE broadcasters is “unacceptable.” According to Cllr John Paul Feeley, people are in a state of “shock” over recent pay controversies facing RTE.

Speaking on this morning’s Joe Finnegan Show, Cllr Feeley said that taxpayers across the country have “invested interest” in the national institution.

He believes the recent scandal is yet another example of how those who do “tremendous work” on behalf of this country have been “betrayed” by those who have been generous with taxpayers money.

Cllr Feeley added that this is a case of where a few people doing the “wrong thing” within an organisation has resulted in letting “very good people down.”

The local representative stated; “I’m not a believer in the national sport of begrudgery, I actually liked Ryan Tubridy as a presenter, but I also think the type of money that he and others were in receipt of is entirely unacceptable and not based on any sense of reality.

Shauna Bowers writes:

The contributions from RTÉ executives and board members to politicians this week regarding hidden payments to former Late Late show host Ryan Tubridy was “somewhat of an unedifying affair”, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has said.

Senior management and board members of the national broadcaster appeared before the Public Accounts Committee and the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday and Thursday.

Speaking to reporters in Balbriggan on Friday morning, Mr O’Brien said he “hasn’t been satisfied with the detail that has been given in the answers”.

“Some of the revelations are, frankly, pretty shocking. This is a very serious situation for RTE. It’s a public broadcaster that I have immense respect for, we need good public service broadcasting,” he said.

“I think the performance of the management team - both the executive board and the board members - from what I saw of their contributions was less than confident. Their contributions were less than clear. It led to somewhat of an unedifying affair, to be honest.”

Mr O’Brien said there is “no question that very, very significant reform within RTE and its management structure and within the composition of its board is needed and is needed urgently”.

The minister said the committee hearings provided “insufficient” answers and highlighted significant issues within the organisation.

“I think what the last few days exposed is a very serious deficiency in corporate governance. A very serious deficiency as well in basic management skills and basic communications within different units in our national broadcaster,” he said.

“That is something I’m sure we will be discussing in greater detail on Tuesday [at Cabinet].”

This from our crime editor Conor Lally:

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said his force would examine any aspect of the remuneration and governance controversy at RTÉ if required to do so, though a complaint would first be required.

“We haven’t received any complaints, and we would only engage if there was elements of deception or dishonesty in respect of behaviour,” he said when speaking to the media after a public meeting of the Policing Authority in Drogheda, Co Louth, on Thursday.

“No complaints have been made to my office and neither do we see that for the moment ourselves. So I think we will await developments. Obviously, An Garda Síochána is prepared to conduct an investigation if necessary but we would need to receive a complaint first.

“Given the complexity of what’s emerging, obviously we can be proactive if we ascertain crime or the allegation or suspicion of crime, but that’s not the area we are in at the moment.”

Center Parcs has announced it is not continuing its €295,000 sponsorship deal for The Ryan Tubridy Show.

The leisure giant has been a sponsor of the show since November last year and the deal is for one year.

It is another financial blow for RTÉ and evidence of the reputational damage that recent scandals have inflicted on the organisation.

We’re now hearing that it’s unlikely that terms of reference for the Government’s review of governance will be finished today, with Cabinet approval likely to be sought on Tuesday for a final draft.

From Pat Leahy in Brussels:

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said revelations at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday about RTÉ’s barter account were “a matter of real concern”, and suggested that accounting rules and company law may have been breached at the station.

Mr Varadkar played down the reports of RTÉ’s corporate hospitality for its advertising clients that so enraged some members of the Public Accounts Committee yesterday.

“That’s part of the way business works,” he said.

But he said the fact it was “so untransparent, even concealed” and “that payments were made for work that perhaps wasn’t done – that’s much more serious and it’s a matter of real concern”.

Mr Varadkar was speaking to journalists as he arrived for the second day of the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels.

He also said that in future RTÉ may have to account differently for its public funds and its commercial revenues – suggesting a deep reorganisation of the broadcaster may be on the cards. He said RTÉ received commercial revenues and licence fee income from the public, “and that all goes into the one pot – and I’m not sure that’s going to be appropriate going forward”.

“I know as someone who is a trustee of a political party, we have to keep the public money separate from the money we raise ourselves, have to produce separate accounts, and I’m just wondering might it have been better if RTÉ operated on that basis,” he said.

Asked if the allegations of fraud made by some members of the Public Accounts Committee meant this could be a matter for the gardaí to look into, Mr Varadkar said: “I’m not sure we’re at that point yet. But it did concern me to hear that it would appear that payments were made by RTÉ outside contractors for work that wasn’t actually done – and that does raise issues in terms of accounting rules and company law.”

He said the Government would proceed with the appointment of “someone who understands corporate governance, understands accounting, understands how organisations should be run and should not be run” to examine the situation at RTÉ and “put things right”. This is understood to be Prof Niamh Brennan from UCD.

Asked if an authorised officer could be appointed under the Companies Acts, Mr Varadkar said the exact legal mechanism had not been decided.

“We haven’t decided exactly which legal mechanism will be used. So there is an option under the act for the Minister to appoint a designated person and at least earlier in the week it wasn’t planned to do that but I think the Minister is still reserving her judgment on that and it remains an option,” he said.

The Oireachtas media committee is this morning set to sign off on plans to bring Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly before it as the crisis over secret payments to the broadcaster continues.

The committee will meet in private at 10.30am, with committee chairwoman Niamh Smyth TD set to put down a proposal that the two men be invited in.

Both are central to the ongoing scandal, with payments administered through Mr Kelly’s UK company to Mr Tubridy that were labelled as “consultancy” payments in fact destined for the broadcaster. The emergence of the payments, which had the effect of keeping Mr Tubridy’s pay well in excess of published figures, has led to a rolling controversy bringing unprecedented pressure on the broadcaster.

Speaking on Friday morning, Fianna Fáil TD Ms Smyth said that “after considerable debate over two committees it is now incumbent on the voices outside the room to come in and share their side of the series of events which led to secret payments to Ryan Tubridy”.

Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster said yesterday’s PAC meeting revealed individuals at the top in RTÉ acted as they saw fit in a culture that was “completely devoid of any oversight or governance”.

Ms Munster told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that she accepted a certain amount of corporate entertainment was necessary, but it was the extravagance of the spending by RTÉ, the “Celtic Tiger type of splurging of taxpayers’ money” that was so alarming, especially as at the same time RTÉ was seeking an increase in funds and an increase in the TV licence fee, she said.

“It just appears that there’s plenty of perks and top-ups for some at the very top and then cuts for everybody else within the organisation.”

Ms Munster added that the more details that emerged “the shadier it gets” and that it had been “just excruciating” sitting at the PAC meeting trying to get answers.

“All the while you’re sitting there and you’re thinking the public have been misled, the workers have been misled, the directors have been misled.”

The question remained why was RTÉ underwriting separate commercial deals “for some of its people at the top”.

The entire issue was down to RTÉ management and “an abysmal lack of proper governance and oversight,” she said, adding that the reputation of RTÉ was in tatters because of a few.