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LAST UPDATE | 12 Jul 2023
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR told Fine Gael colleagues tonight 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.
The Fine Gael leader said where this has occurred for other organisations in the past, it has not been granted without significant conditionality from Government.
The Taoiseach’s comments come as Mazars has been appointed as the forensic accountancy firm to review the accounts of RTÉ.
Following the RTÉ payments scandal, Media Minister Catherine Martin announced last week that the Government is launching two independent reviews into RTÉ.
The minister said a forensic accountant would also be appointed to look through the broadcasters accounts.
The appointment of the forensic accountant was expedited by the minister, who originally said it could take a number of weeks to procure the services.
In a statement this afternoon, the minister said the forensic accountant will initially focus on the barter account and any other off-balance sheet accounts.
This scope may be expanded by the minister, if required.
Mazars will collaborate and share findings with the two Expert Advisory Committees on Governance and Culture and on Contractor Fees, Human Resources and other matters as well as any third party consultants working with these Advisory Committees, said the statement.
The minister also announced the appointment of Stephen Smith to the Expert Advisory Committee on Governance and Culture and Liam Kelly to the Expert Advisory Committee on Contractor Fees, Human Resources and other matters.
With the committee memberships now complete and the minister plans to meet with the committees early next week.
The procurement for the advisory services to support these reviews is currently out to tender and they are expected to start work in August.
Martin said the appointment of Mazars as forensic accountants “is a very important step in getting to the facts in RTÉ and shedding further light on the issues which have surfaced in recent weeks”.
She added:
“I also want to thank Stephen Smith and Liam Kelly for agreeing to serve on the Expert Advisory Committees on Governance and Culture, and on Contractor Fees, Human Resources and other matters respectively.
These expert committees will oversee the independent root and branch examination which will play a key role in restoring trust in RTÉ.”
The appointment of the forensic accountant comes as RTÉ executives are set to face further questioning from politicians tomorrow after Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly completed a marathon day at the Oireachtas yesterday.
Representatives from RTÉ will appear before the Oireachtas Public Account Committee (PAC).
While many had hoped that the appearance of Tubridy and his agent might provide some answers as to what went on, the public sessions in some instances only brought about more questions.
On Thursday, the new director general of RTÉ Kevin Bakhurst will appear before the committee, presumably to outline the reforms he plans to implement at the national broadcaster.
Others that have been invited to appear include Adrian Lynch who is acting deputy director general, as well as Richard Collins, Jim Jennings and Breda O’Keeffe.
Collins and Jennings were not named on the interim leadership team announced this week by Bakhurst when he stood down the former board.
O’Keefe is a former CFO at RTÉ and appeared before the committee last week.
Yesterday, Noel Kelly of NK Management claimed that O’Keeffe was involved in the deal between Renault and Tubridy being underwritten by the broadcaster.
It is understood that O’Keeffe has declined to attend the meeting this week and former RTÉ chair Moya Doherty will also not be in attendance.
Speaking to The Journal after yesterday’s committee sessions, PAC chairperson Brian Stanley said RTÉ need to “put to bed” that matter, stating that what the committee heard yesterday “flies in the face of what RTÉ had been saying” to the committee last week.
“We will need to put that to them and see what they say about that,” said Stanley.
He said further questions need to be asked of RTÉ management about invoices that were sent in under the commercial deal, and the labelling of them as consultancy fees, as well as some of the accounting practices.
Stanley said that number of questions remain about the tripartite deal between Renault, RTÉ and Tubridy.
He said RTÉ need to come to the committee meeting on Thursday with all the answers, so they can “draw a line under all this”.
If information was misrepresented or misleading, then RTÉ need to “own up to that”, said Stanley.
I thought you had to pay for passports. That’s like saying “Temple bar pub down ten kegs of guinness after unexpected surge in business on a busy Saturday night”
@Ronan Sexton: oh no! Where can I donate?
Enda should follow Trumps lead and just push a bill across the table next time he’s sitting down with Theresa May. ‘Yeeeaaaaahhh… whenever you get the chance, if you could just pay that… that be great”
@Drew TheChinaman :): I wouldn’t do that, the passport office made 5.2 million on those extra passports so they came out way ahead
@Boganity: strange that the article focuses only on the costs.
How do you possible arrive at that figure… a passport costs €80… 10,959 passports were issued. That means revenue from them were approx €877k.
If you can’t do basic math you really shouldn’t comment.
@Drew TheChinaman :): id say the people in the passport office don’t know what’s after hitting them a surge in work they’d be used to the slow and steady approach
@Drew TheChinaman :): as its says in the article that is the net of a 3 month period year on year, the annualised figure is 65,000 passports issued to people in Britain which it also says in the article
Irish passport applications from British residents are now being processed in Britain itself.
@Nosmo King: all Irish passports are issued by the passport office in Dublin. Since 911 all passports have to be issued in the actual country the passport is from. Embassies and consulates now only process applications and distribute the passports when they receive back from Dublin
@Boganity: Yes, as I said. All Irish passport applications from British residents are processed in Britain itself !
€31,637,414 the running costs for a year!!!!!!!more massaged figures????or just bad management?
@et: that 31.6 million figure includes the printing and production costs of the 720,000 passports issued last year for which they charged 57.6 million, that’s a 26 million profit they made.
It had better be an April fool because there has been no recruiting in health, 32 extra staff and an extra €4 + million would benefit in that area would be far more welcome.
@Jho Harris: Health didn’t make 26 million profit the passport office made last year.
@Boganity: If you put your comment into context, health will lose money to the amount of extra passports on non passport holders in the country who have no intention of paying taxes etc.
Just remembered its April fools day
This is good news. What’s with the negative headline? Months ago he was informing the world that they were understaffed and wouldn’t be able to cope with the volume of applications. Now they have work, staff and a great new app. He should be celebrating the preparation put in.
Allow the highly paid staff of the passport office their we rant
It’s all bull
I am over in the UK on a break
It’s must cheaper here fact!!
@Jonathan Yeo: do you pay property tax etc on your break?
Passport express now taking between 6 to 8 weeks not 10 working days. There must be a huge surge in applications
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