RTE’S INCOMING DIRECTOR general intends to carry out a complete reconstitution of the broadcaster’s executive board, the Public Accounts Committee has heard.
Kevin Bakhurst is to take over the role on 10 July.
Senior RTÉ executives are appearing before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee following revelations about secret payments made to presenter Ryan Tubridy, which totalled €345,000 over six years.
Interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch told the committee that he has spoken to Bakhurst, whose first task as director general will be a full shakeup of the executive board of RTÉ.
In his opening statement before the committee, Lynch said: “The application of governance procedures at an executive board level allowed for the partial and incomplete sharing of information”.
“The Executive Board failed in its responsibility to act as a collective"
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 29, 2023
RTÉ Interim Deputy Director General Adrian Lynch says that incoming DG Kevin Bakhurst’s first task will be “a reconstitution of the Executive Board of RTÉ” | More: https://t.co/oIpUCa2ORg pic.twitter.com/b0QoO2thhn
As a result, he said, “individual members of the executive either did not have access to information or had information withheld from them.
“It is true that the executive board failed in its collective responsibility to act as a collective and failed to ensure good governance in this matter.”
RTÉ’s board and executive board are two separate bodies. The executive board is responsible for the day-to-day running of the broadcaster and is chaired by the director general.
The RTÉ board is chaired by Siún Ní Raghallaigh, who has been appearing at Oireachtas committees this week alongside members of the executive board.
Lynch continued that as a result of “the siloed style of the procedures at the executive, and an over-reliance on the prerogative asserted by the director general”, the board did not receive “a comprehensive evaluation of Ryan Tubridy’s contract in full”.
“We acknowledge and accept this failure by those members specifically of the executive who were aware of the contract.”
The controversy arose after it was revealed last Thursday that Tubridy, RTÉ’s highest-paid presenter, earned an extra €345,000 over the course of over six years on top of his salary as published by the broadcaster.
The issue was partly the result of a deal which saw Tubridy receive additional income from commercial partner Renault, with that income guaranteed and underwritten by RTÉ.
The manner in which these payments were recorded led to an understatement of his earnings, with RTÉ apologising for the mistake. Tubridy himself has apologised for ‘not questioning’ the published figures but said doing so was RTÉ’s responsibility
Senior RTÉ executives also went before the Oireachtas Media Committee yesterday, where they were grilled about the timeline of the controversy and who had knowledge of the tripartite deal between the broadcaster, Renault and Tubridy’s agent.
Since the revelations last Thursday, Tubridy was taken off the air and it is not clear when he will return.
The broadcaster’s outgoing director general Dee Forbes resigned on Monday, after she was suspended from her role. It emerged yesterday that she was asked to resign nearly a week before the payments were made public.
RTÉ said in a lengthy statement earlier this week that Forbes was the only person who knew the full details of the deal.
Forbes’ resignation on Monday means she cannot be compelled to go before the committee.
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