LAST UPDATE | 13 Jul 2023

THE NEW DIRECTOR GENERAL of RTÉ will tell the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today that the controversy surrounding undisclosed payments made to Ryan Tubridy has “created one of the most shameful and damaging episodes in the organisation’s history”. 

Kevin Bakhurst will face questions from TDs and Senators on the matter for the first time since taking over from former director general Dee Forbes. 

In an email to staff on Monday, his first day in the role, Bakhurst stood down the entire RTÉ executive board and replaced it with an “interim leadership team”. 

He also set out plans to expedite the establishment of a Register of Interests for staff and contractors and said he will work to “co-ordinate a review of roles and grades, pay, and gender equality” as part of a “cultural change” within the organisation. 

RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh will appear before the committee alongside Bakhurst today, alongside interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch, chief financial officer Richard Collins and head of strategy Conor Mullen. 

The PAC will also examine the findings of a Grant Thornton interim review of the contracts of RTÉ’s top 10 most highly paid on-air presenters and whether their published salaries were correct. 

In his opening statement, Bakhurst will tell politicians that RTÉ “should not be brokering or facilitating commercial arrangements with its contractors”.

“The level of fees in contracts of this nature are too high. We should have operated with greater transparency, and should have applied much higher standards of honesty and integrity in terms of its public statements,” he will say.

“The public were misled, as were you as public representatives. That is completely unacceptable. I want to assure you that lessons have been learned, and actions are being taken.”

Bakhurst will say that it remains a source of frustration to the public, the RTÉ Board, elected representatives and staff within RTÉ that there are “gaps in evidence and missing personal testimonies, that could irrefutably evidence all aspects of the chain of events, what informed or influenced those events, and why this occurred”.

“I have instructed all divisions that they are to give the fullest co-operation possible with these investigations, and with Committee queries,” he will say.

“It is of the utmost importance that RTÉ works to create as much clarity as possible as to the sequence of decisions and actions, and by whom they were authorised or enacted.”

Bakhurst will outline that there will be a new permanent leadership team put in place “in due course” following the dismantling of the executive board earlier this week. 

He will also tell the committee that all significant decisions will be agreed by the interim leadership team and a record of discussions leading to these decisions will be compiled, while the pay of the permanent leadership team will be published annually along with top 10 presenter pay. 

“I am absolutely determined to implement the change and reform which will help us draw a line under this shameful period in RTÉ’s history and to rebuilding trust in public service broadcasting,” he will conclude. 

Siún Ní Raghallaigh will tell the committee today that Bakhurst “is steadying the ship of RTÉ by taking swift action on a range of important matters, from leadership reform to the introduction of a register and more”.

“I particularly welcome his commitment to ongoing staff engagement.”

She will also welcome how Bakhurst is “facing up to the issues of the past and the lamentable failures that have emerged, but he is also setting out an ambitious agenda for the secure future of the organisation”.

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“As Chair I am committed to being as open and transparent as possible and to placing facts in the public domain at the earliest opportunity. That is what I doing here today.”

The findings of the Grant Thornton review show that apart from Tubridy, the published pay of RTÉ’s top 10 earners has been correct from 2010 to 2022.

Work to determine whether salaries between 2008 and 2009 were correct is ongoing.

The review identified one instance where the published pay of one of the top 10 earners exceeded what they had been paid by €1,359. The reason identified was unpaid annual leave. 

“In my view, the difference of €1,359 is not significant, particularly relative to the total published remuneration figures of the Top Ten Earners, and has no impact on the rankings of the Top Ten Earners, no further work was carried out in this regard,” the findings state.

This review is separate to the ongoing Grant Thornton review being conducted into the understatement by RTÉ of Tubridy’s published pay by €120,000 between 2017 and 2019.

Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney has said he will continue to recuse himself from any Cabinet discussions regarding RTÉ due his brother having previously sat on the Executive board. 

Rory Coveney, formerly the stations former Director of Strategy, announced that he would step down with immediate effect on Sunday. 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, meanwhile, told Fine Gael colleagues last night there has been no request for a bailout from RTÉ but said significant conditionality would be required if Government was to ever accede to such a request.