MEDIA MINISTER CATHERINE MARTIN has said she became aware in March that there was an issue in RTÉ’s accounts.
Speaking to reporters today, she said she was told in March that an issue had arisen in their “routine annual audit” and that a “fact-finding review” was being established to get to the bottom of it.
“That is all I knew in March. And I awaited then for the report,” she said.
The minister said officials in her department communicated to her that an issue had arisen and that it was going to be investigated.
“I became aware that it was a presenter in the last few days. I did not know it involved the presenter in question until yesterday,” she said.
Her comments come amid more revelations today into the public understating of Ryan Tubridy’s salary over a number of years.
Over 2017 to 2022 and in the first three months of this year, RTÉ underreported Tubridy’s earnings by a cumulative total of €345,000. It has also been revealed that RTÉ had underwritten a deal with a commercial partner that would see €75,000 paid annually to the presenter.
RTÉ announced this afternoon that its outgoing director general, Dee Forbes, was suspended from her employment on Wednesday.
The minister said she was made aware yesterday off the suspension, stating that she was told the RTÉ Board had to take legal advice before the information was made public.
The former chair of RTÉ’s Board Moya Doherty denied having knowledge of any payments in a statement today.
Speaking about the revelations, the minister said the trust has been damaged between RTÉ and the public, but also the staff.
She initially said she would meet with the current chairperson of the board on Monday to find out what actions are going to be taking. However, Martin said she would be “quite happy” to bring the meeting forward to the weekend if needs be.
It’s understood the meeting will now take place tomorrow.
“The issues raise broader transparency and governance issues of this organisation,” she said.
Martin was also asked if Tubridy should resign, but she said it was beyond her remit to make a comment about such a matter. When asked if he should issue a follow up statement, she said that was a matter for him, but added:
I would like as much transparency around this issue.
The minister would also not be drawn on whether she believes there needs to be resignations over the controversy, but said there is a great urgency in getting “wider transparency” around the governance issues at play.
When asked about other high earners in RTÉ, Martin said the internal process has shown that it doesn’t involve others, but she will await the external audit of that review.
Martin said RTÉ will now need to state how it intends to rebuild trust, “because it’s damaged”.
“Public service broadcasting, the future media commission report, showed that it does the public good. And if the public has lost the trust, if the staff have lost trust, we need to look at the wider transparency, wider governance, the culture that is there in that organisation,” she said.
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