LAST UPDATE | 25 Jun 2023
MORE THAN SEVEN in 10 people don’t believe trust in RTÉ can be restored following the Ryan Tubridy payment controversy.
75% of those surveyed by Amárach for today’s Irish Mail on Sunday said that Tubridy should have corrected the record himself, while 63% believe the license fee should now be made optional.
In today’s paper:
— Irish Mail on Sunday (@IrishMailSunday) June 24, 2023
- POLL: Seven-in-ten say RTÉ can’t regain their trust
- Mosquitoes could soon be Irish residents: expert
- Bono’s boy is dating supermodel’s daughter
And lots more … pic.twitter.com/72AN5ooYpd
It followed a meeting with the Chair of the RTÉ Board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, to discuss the fact that RTÉ’s highest paid star earned an extra €345,000 over the course of over six years than the broadcaster had previously disclosed.
“Public trust in RTÉ must be rebuilt,” said Minister Martin yesterday.
“Therefore, a Government decision on the future funding model for public service broadcasting has been paused until such time as this review is complete and the findings considered,” she added.
On Friday, the RTÉ Board confirmed that its Director General Dee Forbes was suspended from her employment on Wednesday, 21 June.
Forbes was due to step down from her position on 10 July, to be replaced by new Director General Kevin Bakhurst.
Meanwhile, Tubridy has “apologised unreservedly” for not asking questions when RTÉ published incorrect figures for his earnings.
Tubridy said he will not be presenting his daily radio show next week.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week host Justin McCarthy told the chairperson of the Oireachtas Media Committee, Niamh Smyth, that RTÉ couldn’t comment further on details of the scandal for legal reasons.
Smyth said: “It would be a huge mistake of the executive to come before our committee on Wednesday and give those non answers that you have read out.”
“That will only increase annoyance, it will irritate the public even further, and it will damage the brand even further,” she said, adding that she expects an apology on Wednesday from the board for misleading her committee about salaries at RTÉ.
When asked if she wanted to see senior figures in RTÉ losing their positions over the scandal, Smyth said “if that’s what’s required, that’s what’s required”.
“This is not a witch hunt, this is not looking for somebody’s head. This is looking for accountability.”
Also speaking on the show, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure Patrick Donovan questioned how widespread a custom of secret payments might be in other organisations.
“Is this a culture that is just within RTÉ? Or does it extend to other commercial semi state and public bodies where there are these barter accounts, which the people that we’ve heard from so far within the RTÉ organization didn’t have the knowledge of?”
The Irish Mail on Sunday poll found that 63% of respondents now believe the licence fee should be made optional.
The TV licence fee is €160 and Dee Forbes has appeared before Oireachtas Committees in the past to make a case for increasing the fee.
“The core structural funding problem remains” at RTÉ, Forbes told a committee last year, stating that the losses to public service media funding are now estimated to be €65 million annually.
Licence fee incomes make up around 55% of RTÉ’s total income, with the rest coming from commercial activities.
In a statement today, RTÉ said because it is dual funded, its “commercial activities are restricted by statute and Ministerial decision”.
“RTÉ is permitted approximately half the commercial airtime (on both radio and TV) of independent/commercial broadcasters,” added the RTÉ spokesperson.
“Over 90% of RTÉ’s annual advertising/sponsorship revenues are through negotiated commercial contracts with a number of media buying agencies each year,” said the RTÉ spokesperson.
“Those media agencies buy airtime/advertising space from media organisations, including RTÉ, on behalf of their clients and are paid a commission. RTÉ offers all media buying agencies an industry standard 15% commission.”
A “volume discount” can be is determined by the volume of spend a media agency makes with a media organisation each year.
However, the RTÉ spokesperson said that the “competitive marketplace” means that “volume discounts between media buying agencies and media organisations are commercially sensitive and not disclosed”.
Revelations this week led to Independent TD Michael McNamara calling for the licence fee to go.
“The RTÉ board has to go. The licence fee has to go,” he tweeted.
The RTÉ board has to go. The licence fee has to go.
— Michael McNamara TD (@MlMcNamaraTD) June 22, 2023
Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne said it is the biggest crisis RTE has faced in its modern history and added that the controversy “does not help the case” of TV licence fee reform.
“I don’t think RTÉ can make a case for an increase in the licence fee – I don’t have trust in how RTÉ has behaved,” said Byrne.
RTÉ announced on Friday that it would republish the remunerations paid to Tubridy since 2017 in order to “correct the record”.
The broadcaster also stated that the Barter Account used to make payments to Tubridy will be placed within the control of the Finance function and that specific controls will be put in place to the operation of that account.
The Remuneration Committee of the Board will also be given full oversight and approval of the terms of contracts relating to the top 10 most highly paid on-air presenters.
Until these processes are complete there will be a “pausing of all new material on air presenter contracts”, RTÉ stated.
Former press ombudsman and previous head of broadcast compliance in RTÉ, Peter Feeney, yesterday told RTÉ’s Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin that while the broadcaster had been through crises before, this one was “particularly bad”.
“It’s inconceivable that a deal such as has now been discovered, could have taken place without one or more of the RTÉ executive board knowing about it. I find it hard to believe there could only be one person,” he said.
Feeney added that he served as Freedom of Information officer for RTÉ for 20 years and would release pay details of RTÉ’s highest earners to newspapers each year.
“I just took it absolutely for granted that the figures that were being released are the accurate figures. And I’m quite flabbergasted to discover that it’s possible the figures that were being released were inaccurate.
“It would appear that RTÉ management didn’t want to acknowledge that the pay cut being taken by the top earning presenter wasn’t as low as they wanted so they disguised it.”
-With additional reporting from Christina Finn and Jamie McCarron
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