RTÉ staff member benefited from unapproved deal that led to loan of car for five years

A staff member at RTÉ benefited from an unapproved arrangement that led to the loan of a car for five years, only handing the vehicle back on Tuesday, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

As RTÉ executives underwent a third day of questioning in Leinster House on Wednesday about the crisis that has engulfed the broadcaster since the revelation that Ryan Tubridy was paid €345,000 more than his published fee over a six-year period, the car loan arrangement emerged.

Adrian Lynch, the acting deputy director general and de facto head of the organisation, told the committee that he would not divulge the person’s identity, but confirmed that a staff member had a car on loan for a period of five years which had now been returned. He said he was reviewing information on whether there were other similar deals, saying it was “possible” there were.

“That was not approved,” he said, before responding to Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley that the arrangement ended on Tuesday. He would also not confirm the make of the car.

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[ Questions answered, and unanswered, in RTÉ debacle ]

The lunchtime session of the committee was marked by trenchant criticism of the executive of RTÉ by the current chair of the broadcaster after more information emerged on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning about the use of barter accounts and the organisation’s spending on hospitality and client entertainment.

RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh told the committee that there had been a culture of “careless stewardship and indifference to due process”, which had led to the crisis that has “shaken [RTÉ] to its core”. She said that she was “deeply unhappy at the evident pattern of inconsistency and lack of completeness in the provision of information to date by the executive”.

She said it was “profoundly unsatisfactory” that the executive management could not fulfill its role as it cannot rely on the information provided. She declined to voice either confidence or a lack of confidence in the executive team, but later told the committee that she thought “everything has to be looked at, and that includes the top level”.

[ As it happened: Loss making musical, barter accounts, club membership, wages and loaned car under the spotlight at hearing ]

Moya Doherty, the former chair, said there was a “deliberate decision not to inform the board of these issues”. The committee also heard from Breda O’Keeffe, the former chief financial officer, who left RTÉ in 2020.

In a firm defence of her actions, Ms O’Keeffe told the committee that when she was in the post, she was aware that negotiations were taking place about a potential commercial agreement as part Ryan Tubridy’s contract negotiations and that there had been a request that RTÉ would underwrite the deal. She said there was resolve in RTÉ that this would not be done - something she said extended to the then director general Dee Forbes.

RTÉ has said that Ms Forbes later verbally agreed to underwrite the arrangement. Mr Lynch said that Mr Tubridy is currently being paid under a verbal contract, as negotiations on his new radio-only deal were paused.

It was also confirmed that Mr Tubridy will not be back on air next week.

Ms O’Keeffe, whose role was referenced in RTÉ's statements issued last week, was later asked by Christopher O’Sullivan TD whether she felt she had been thrown under the bus. She did not directly address the issue but said she wanted “to set the record straight” with her recollection of events. “My recollections were more akin to what happened, is my view,” she said.

RTÉ came under pressure to explain spending through the barter account, including nearly €5,000 on flip-flops. However, further complexity surfaced regarding the barter account when the RTÉ chief financial officer, Richard Collins, appeared to dispute a statement issued to the committee by the broadcaster itself, which said on Tuesday night there were three barter accounts. Mr Collins insisted there was one, involving three companies, vigorously contesting suggestions that he had supplied inaccurate information to the Public Accounts Committee last week when he said there was a single account, insisting the matter related to “terminology”.

Regarding the underwriting, Mr Collins said that he had been present at a meeting in April 2020 when it was confirmed no indemnity or guarantee would be offered to Mr Tubridy in relation to the deal. He said that at the time, he took comfort from the involvement of Ms Forbes in the deal and repeated his assertion that bigger challenges, arising from the Covid pandemic, faced him at that time.

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There were sharp exchanges between deputies and executives. Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster asked group commercial director Geraldine O’Leary whether her position was tenable. Ms O’Leary responded to say she was not sure that it was, owing to invasions of her privacy, erroneous reports about her, and the impact on her mental health.

Several exchanges focused on the Toy Show the Musical production, which has been indefinitely shelved following commercial difficulties. Rory Coveney, the RTÉ director of strategy, confirmed that the production had massively underperformed with regard to its revenue targets, costing the broadcaster €2.2 million to date. He said that the only ongoing cost related to it is the storage of the set and equipment, at €8,000 a year.