TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that he cannot rule out the possibility that some of the payments made through the RTÉ barter account may have been “on the wrong side of the law”.
The Taoiseach was speaking to reporters in Brussels a day after RTÉ executives appeared before the Public Accounts Committee to face questions in the wake of revelations that undisclosed payments worth €345,000 were made to presenter Ryan Tubridy.
It was revealed during the committee that RTÉ spent €138,000 on IRFU season tickets and €111,000 on travel and accommodation for the 2019 Rugby World Cup via its barter account. It also spent €26,000 relating to the Champions League final in 2019.
The committee also heard from a member of the executive board that the Irish taxpayer may have been “defrauded” over undeclared payments made by RTÉ to Tubridy.
RTÉ chief financial officer Richard Collins said he believed there was “concealment or deception” at play in relation to two €75,000 payments to Tubridy which were labelled as “consultancy fees” on invoices. The payments were also made via a barter account, and were made out to Tubridy’s agent, NK Management.
Asked if he thought it was fraud, he said RTÉ had received legal advice to say that it was not fraud. When pushed on the matter, Collins said it was his opinion that maybe the taxpayer was defrauded.
Reporters in Brussels today asked Varadkar if allegations of fraud meant that the matter could be one for gardaí to look into. He said he wasn’t sure it had reached that point yet, adding:
“But it did concern me to hear that it would appear that payments were made by RTÉ to outside contractors for work that wasn’t actually done, and that does raise issues in terms of accounting rules and company law.
“I think we’re not yet at the point but I don’t think we can rule out the fact that it’s not just a case of irregular payments, that some of these payments may have been on the wrong side of the law, but I don’t want to jump to that conclusion.”
On the subject of sports tickets and expenses, Varadkar said it was not unusual for any company or large body to entertain its clients.
“That’s part of the way business works,” he said – adding that it was however a matter of concern “that it was so untransparent, even concealed.”
He also said going forward, there would also likely have to be changes in how RTÉ manages its accounts.
“It receives public money from the license fee and other sources and receives commercial money from advertising and commercial partners and it all goes into the one pot, and I’m not sure that’s going to be appropriate going forward,” he said.
“I know as someone who’s a trustee of a political party, we have to keep the public money separate from the money we raise ourselves, have to produce separate accounts, and I’m just wondering, might it have been better if RTÉ operated on that basis?”
Varadkar also said that the Government would be appointing “a person who’s an expert in corporate governance” to do a review of the governance and culture of RTÉ.
Minister Catherine Martin announced on Tuesday that she would be commissioning an external review on governance and culture at the broadcaster – with further details of the process expected in coming days.
Varadkar said today: “The important thing really is less the mechanism that we use, it’s more the fact that it’s done and that somebody from the outside who understands corporate governance, understands accounting, understands how organisations should be run and should not be run is brought in to carry out an assessment, to report to Government and to put things right.”
RTÉ’s Prime Time last night reported that former director general Dee Forbes initially said that the invoices labelled as “consultancy fees” were work done for RTÉ by Noel Kelly, the agent who represents Ryan Tubridy and a number of RTÉ figures.
RTÉ Investigates reported that when Forbes was first asked about invoices labelled as consultancy fees, she said they were bills from Kelly at a rate of €1,200 per hour.
When auditors were not satisfied with her explanation, Forbes subsequently told the RTÉ Board that the invoices related to the tripartite deal between RTÉ, Renault and Tubridy.
The Public Accounts Committee has requested a number of documents from RTÉ, including copies of all of RTÉ’s bank accounts and of barter accounts going back 20 years, as well as Tubridy’s previous five-year contract and the arrangement with the barter company.
However, the committee were told that some documents were covered by legal professional privilege.
Asked today if he thought that privilege should be waived, Varadkar said: “That does depend on the circumstances.
“Legal privilege is there for a reason and does need to be protected. I don’t know the exact circumstances that are involved but individuals, companies, governments use legal privilege because if you’re involved in a court case, if somebody is suing you, the fact that you’re forced to release all your documents and the other side isn’t puts you at an enormous disadvantage.
“So there is a reason for legal privilege. I don’t know whether it’s appropriate in this case or not. I just don’t know enough about it.”
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