LAST UPDATE | 28 Feb

RTÉ DIRECTOR GENERAL Kevin Bakhurst has told a rally outside the broadcaster that the recent period of time has been “horrendous” for all staff. 

Bakhurst said it has been a “rough few weeks” for the organisation, adding that he is “absolutely determined to make this a better organisation for you all to work in, a better organisation to deliver to audiences and to rebuild trust and pride in working here”. 

Staff at RTÉ are holding rally this afternoon at the plaza in RTÉ Donnybrook as the broadcaster continues to deal with ongoing controversies. 

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has called for a focus to be put on public service broadcasting funding following last night’s meeting of the Oireachtas Media Committee. 

Media Minister Catherine Martin last night faced a three-hour grilling by TDs and Senators at the committee, which centred around the resignation of the former chair of the RTÉ board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh. 

In a statement this morning, the NUJ said the resignation of Ní Raghallaigh and the circumstances surrounding her departure have added to a sense of “chaos” which it says has “engulfed the organisation”. 

“The ongoing political controversies, the carousel of allegations and counter-allegations and the drip feed of information have left an already demoralised staff reeling. What RTÉ workers now need is a sharp focus on the future,” NUJ Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley said. 

RTÉ NUJ representative Emma O’Kelly has said members “remain concerned at the financial crisis caused by the delay in reforming the financing of public service broadcasting”. 

“Legitimate concern over corporate governance failures and understandable anger at the lack of engagement by former senior executives should not be used to further delay decisions on the funding of public service broadcasting,” O’Kelly said. 

“Our call on the government is to act immediately to confirm a new model of funding for public service broadcasting, one which provides certainty to RTÉ staff, the independent production sector, and the public.”

RTÉ Journalist and union rep Emma O’Kelly said the scandal that had consumed the broadcaster is rooted in management chasing “golden eggs”. pic.twitter.com/1dAcQZXoQ0

— Muiris O’Cearbhaill (@muirisoc) February 28, 2024

Addressing the crowd at the rally, O’Kelly said: “If you look at something like Toy Show the Musical, it was RTÉ desperately looking for a goose that would lay a golden egg because we were starved of public funding.”

She said that lessons need to be learnt from “everything that has happened”. 

“By learning lessons, we need to look to the root cause which is funding and the kind of funding. We work in RTÉ, we know there are very few golden eggs. The quality programming comes from slow and steady and hard work from talented and creative individuals, that is what we want to see,” O’Kelly said. 

RTÉ DG Kevin Bakhurst addresses staff and NUJ members outside RTÉ. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/klZoZGhjdD

— Muiris O’Cearbhaill (@muirisoc) February 28, 2024

Committee hearing

During yesterday’s committee, Minister Martin disclosed that the former chair had “indicated she might resign” if she received a letter ahead of Martin’s interview on Prime Time last Thursday. 

She said she sent the letter that evening anyway, as she hoped Ní Raghallaigh’s indication was merely “a rash comment”, adding: “It was so astounding.”

In her opening statement to the committee, Martin said that the events of last week were “not the first time” Ní Raghallaigh “failed to give a clear account of her and the Board’s work at RTÉ”. 

She also told the committee that Bakhurst had told her that his predecessor Dee Forbes did not received an exit package when she left the broadcaster.  

This afternoon, TDs had an opportunity to give their view following yesterday’s committee meeting, with many accusing the minister of adopting a “hands-off” approach to the crisis at RTE.

Opposition politicians called the minister “naive” for not expecting a question on having confidence in Ni Raghallaigh when she appeared on RTÉ Prime Time last Thursday.

Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty said was “tantamount to a public humiliation of a public servant who has served this state for many years”.

“What you did in effect was ensure that she was pushed over the cliff,” he said.

Referring to the minister’s statement that she did not expect to be asked about having confidence in Ms Ni Raghallaigh during the Prime Time interview, he said: “There is nobody in this house that would be so naive to swallow that guff.”

Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster told Martin that “instead of steadying the ship, you threw a grenade in”.

Munster said: “You can’t be an effective minister by ignoring parts of your brief that are tricky. I’ve lost count of the amount of times and ways I’ve tried to raise bogus self employment (at RTE) with you.

Labour TD Alan Kelly raised a number of points with the minister, stating that her decision to go on RTÉ last week was a “disastrous decision”. 

“You’ve basically poured petrol on the fire to a degree we haven’t seen since the Ryan Tubridy appearances inside in committees. This is now really, really unprecedented, but it’s of your own making,” he said. 

He went on to say that he did not believe it was credible that department officials did not know that the Richard Collins exit package was approved by the remuneration committee, of which Ni Raghallaigh chaired. 

Kelly said he was sitting in the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, where department officials were present, stating that that would have had to be known by the officials.

“For me, that’s not credible… It’s not credible that they didn’t know… There’s no way officials in my department wouldn’t know something like that. It’s not possible. The only way in which they wouldn’t or you wouldn’t know is that if they choose not to tell you which is even more worrying,” he added. 

The Labour TD also asked questions about the statement the minister made in committee yesterday that her officials told RTÉ Prime Time staff that a press query had come in relating to the minister being misinformed by the chair.

Kelly said “how this press query was manufactured in likelihood it had to come somewhere from some sort of arm of government because no one no one else knew,” he added.  

With reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill at the scene at RTÉ