RTE crisis

[Baile Brigín 2]

Barter accounts are par for the  course in the  business. Unless they find more Tubs dirt I don't see why all the excitement is necessary

Are they though?

I see they paid €500 odd to Shamrock Rovers for a golf classic via the barter account. What money could Rovers have owed them to offset requiring this treatment? Looks like they were hiding transactions that benefitted high earners into these accounts

[seafoid]

Barter accounts are par for the  course in the  business. Unless they find more Tubs dirt I don't see why all the excitement is necessary

Are they though?

I see they paid €500 odd to Shamrock Rovers for a golf classic via the barter account. What money could Rovers have owed them to offset requiring this treatment? Looks like they were hiding transactions that benefitted high earners into these accounts

Apparently they are in the media business. Loads of entertaining and going to big tournaments. Accounting at year end.b

[trailer]

I don't mind the jollies etc. That's the business of business. If they come across as a bunch of miserable penny pinchers they'll find it hard to win business and keep commercial business. But just be f**king up front about. Hiding it in a web of accounts is wild looking. The Tubs stuff is over the line though.

[gallsman]

Jollies happen and, as RTE is an organisation dependent on commercial revenue, client entertainment is a necessary evil. One I absolutely hate regardless of the industry, but a necessary one all the same.

However as a body in receipt of taxpayer funding there is an onus on RTE to be whiter than white and to spend such funding wisely. A pittance in the grand scheme of things but the idea that €5,000 needed to be spent on Havaianas for a summer party is laughable, and easy to pick on by media or politicians looking to grandstand.

There was one today about an employee who is in receipt of a car allowance also having "a lend of" a company car. For five years. And it was returned yesterday. Madness.

[Captain Scarlet]

Is Prime Time done for the Summer??

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2023/07/06/rte-board-seeks-swift-action-as-trust-in-national-broadcaster-dwindles/Ms Ní Raghaillaigh wrote to incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst as well as acting deputy DG Adrian Lynch demanding that "swift action be taken" after trust and confidence was eroded by the "deeply unsatisfactory nature in which information is being provided by the executive".

The escalating divisions come amid diminishing board confidence over the current composition of the executive board, compounded by events this week in which yet more unexpected information emerged about the broadcaster's use of barter accounts and the extent of its spending on corporate hospitality.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/07/06/flip-flops-are-the-least-of-rtes-problems/Donohoe is one of a group in government who are supporters of public-service broadcasting but often privately critical of the station. He was one of the fiercest opponents of the bid by RTÉ for more State support last year. There are several others who share his views. There are some outright critics of the station in the Government; and there are supporters too. Catherine Martin, the relevant Minister, is reckoned by most to be one. Tánaiste Micheál Martin is usually open to looking favourably on RTÉ's frequent requests, insiders say.

But what all fear now is the state of RTÉ once this phase of the scandal abates. It will surely damage commercial revenues. Additional State funding is a political impossibility right now. And that means only one thing: RTÉ is facing a financial crisis in the near future. And what happens then?

Conscious of the fact that the commercial realities will move more quickly than the political ones, some people in the Government are already trying to figure out the way out of this. Two of them spoke privately to The Irish Times this afternoon; both say it will involve a smaller RTÉ, doing a narrower range of things, more clearly identifiable as public-service broadcasting.

Deciding how to do that is going to be a very painful process for the station; changes will be imposed on an angry workforce, not by the Government or management decree but by financial reality. It is also likely that it will be under substantially new leadership. Tough and all as these past few weeks have been for RTÉ and its staff, the hard times are by no means over. 

[joemamas]

The sense of entitlement from these execs and the absolute smugness and disdain they have with respect to questions they are being asked is on another level.

Totally agree, they come  across as somewhat aloof. Not living in the country,  is that a job they are appointed to or do they have to apply for it, and is it one of those jobs for life deals.
Listening to their accents, doesn't seem like too many of them would have a difficult commute to the office.

[trailer]

Jollies happen and, as RTE is an organisation dependent on commercial revenue, client entertainment is a necessary evil. One I absolutely hate regardless of the industry, but a necessary one all the same.

However as a body in receipt of taxpayer funding there is an onus on RTE to be whiter than white and to spend such funding wisely. A pittance in the grand scheme of things but the idea that €5,000 needed to be spent on Havaianas for a summer party is laughable, and easy to pick on by media or politicians looking to grandstand.

There was one today about an employee who is in receipt of a car allowance also having "a lend of" a company car. For five years. And it was returned yesterday. Madness.

Agree some of the stuff is ridiculous and gives tabloids headlines they couldn't dream of.

[gallsman]

A Marty party indeed!

[trailer]

A Marty party indeed!

Unreal.

[skeog]

Poor Marty was he getting free petrol as well.

[marty34]

All coming out now. I'd say there was a few more getting 'benefits'.



Needs a serious clean out. A sham of a place at the top level.

The establishment.

[trileacman]

If the agreement was Mc at our gigs and we'll give you a car is there any real problem with that? I mean I can't see who would be upset by this (bar the taxman).

[trileacman]

I mean I'd say all of the rte GAA panelists at one time or another have gotten the free use of a car. It's pretty much a rite of passage in the GAA.