LAST UPDATE | 5 Jul 2023
NEW DOCUMENTS RELEASED by RTÉ show that former Director General Dee Forbes told presenter Ryan Tubridy in 2020 that his pay would not be reduced.
The information was contained in a series of documents submitted to TDs last night ahead of RTÉ’s appearance before the Oireachtas Media Committee this afternoon.
The documents were sent as it emerged that a review of RTÉ’s finances had uncovered the use of more barter accounts by the broadcaster.
RTÉ representatives are appearing before the Oireachtas Media Committee for a second time today over the ongoing scandal around its failure to disclose €345,000 worth of payments to Tubridy since 2017.
It has emerged since that RTÉ underwrote a commercial sponsorship of Tubridy by Renault, labelled invoices for €75,000 payments made to Tubridy as a result as “consultancy fees”, and used a barter account for the payments.
The documentation shows how Forbes promised that RTÉ would guarantee the controversial deal with Renault.
It also shows that Forbes told Tubridy that his pay would not be reduced by RTÉ up to 2025, though the broadcaster had made assurances to the public that it was reducing the salaries of its highest earners.
Forbes wrote to Tubridy in July 2020: “The purpose of this correspondence is to record in writing our guarantee and undertaking that the fees set out in this Agreement will be paid by RTÉ without any reductions and RTÉ shall not make any request or enquiry from you in relation to a reduction in the agreed fees during the currency of the Agreement save as to those that might be imposed by changes to legislation.”
It has been found that RTÉ spent €138,000 on IRFU season tickets and €111,000 on travel and accommodation for the Rugby World Cup via a barter account.
At the Public Accounts Committee last week, Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy asked RTÉ’s Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins whether there was “a list of barter accounts”.
Collins responded: “No, there is only one barter account.”
Another document provided to the committee details the salaries paid to RTÉ’s highest 100 earners, though the names of the earners have been anonymised for privacy reasons.
The top salaries range from €515,000 to €116,851.
10 people on the list are executives, 59 hold other management roles, and 31 are presenters.
Minister for Media and Culture Catherine Martin announced yesterday that the government is launching two independent reviews into the culture at RTÉ and its relationships with external contractors.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty has called on Minister Martin to use her powers under the Broadcasting Act to appoint an external auditor and criticised the way in which RTÉ has been releasing information.
Speaking today on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Doherty said: “There are extensive powers under Section 109 of the Broadcasting Act.
“The minister can appoint a person or a number of people to go in there and look for any documentation that we want.
“The fact that we’re relying on RTÉ executives to get that information to us and present in a way, in my view that is suitable sometimes to them, is not acceptable.”
Doherty added: “We’re still relying on midnight declarations from RTÉ in relation to barter accounts and other information, that’s not acceptable.”
Doherty also said there is a “need for individuals to reflect on their position within RTÉ” and that there are “serious questions in relation to the performance of a number of senior executives”.
Niamh Smyth is the Chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee and she said there is “frustration” with the “drip feed of information” from RTÉ.
Also speaking on Morning Ireland, Smyth said the Committee will formally invite both Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly to appear before it.
“This is a story that has a number of voices that are absent at the moment,” said Smyth.
“That being NK Management, the voice of the former DG Dee Forbes and obviously, Ryan Tubridy himself.”
While Smyth left open the option for written evidence to be provided, she added that the Committee will “stand ready over the summer months” to meet with Forbes, Kelly, and Tubridy.
“I think their voices and their perspective on what has happened here is really important to our deliberations and I have no doubt they will want to add their voice to it as well,” said Smyth.
Elsewhere, Finance Minister Michael McGrath told Morning Ireland that “full disclosure and transparency is absolutely required” from those appearing before the Media Committee today.
“They need to come before the committee today and just reveal all the information that they have and explain why the information last week on that particular issue [the barter account] was inaccurate,” said McGrath.
Last week, RTÉ’s CFO Richard Collins said there was “only one barter account”.
“It’s always deeply unfortunate when you have to go back before an Oireachtas committee and correct information that you gave the previous week where you gave the wrong answer or inaccurate information,” said McGrath.
“We do need a comprehensive explanation as to why that was the case.
“It may well have been a genuine mistake, and we all make mistakes, but you would expect the RTÉ executive team to have been fully briefed and prepared before going before the Oireachtas committee.”
McGrath also said that RTÉ “need to get to grips with this as a matter of urgency”.
“They need to lance the boil, and the only way to do that is to be fully open with all of the information at their disposal,” McGrath told Morning Ireland.
“Then we can begin to move through all of that, set up the independent reviews that Minister Martin has confirmed, allow the forensic accountant to do his or her work, and then move on from there.”
While he described barter accounts as a “normal part of the commercial practice of commercial radio stations”, McGrath said “the substance of that transaction” must be reported.
“Clearly in the case of the payments to Tubridy that were channelled through this barter account, the substance of those transactions was not reported or certainly revealed publicly in the published information in relation to salaries.
“There is nothing inherently wrong with barter accounts, but you need to make sure that you have full disclosure of all of the information.”
Additional reporting by Christina Finn and Jane Moore
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