RTE crisis

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2023/06/29/watch-live-rte-pay-scandal-latest-ryan-tubridy-salary-controversy-pac-oireachtas-committee-dee-forbes/PAC chairman Brian Stanley has just been on Morning Ireland. "We hope to get more than yesterday. The explanations were bizarre. We need better than the non-explanation yesterday," he said.

There is a lot of information to be uncovered. He says the notion that RTÉ operates in silos is not credible and it is not credible either to lay everything at the feet of Dee Forbes.

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It is "off the wall" that she was only one who knew about these transitions.

Mr Stanley says the members need to hear more about the involvement of Ryan Tubridy's Noel Kelly in all of this. He may represent as many as 20 people within the organisation.

"Oen of the things that came from Grant Thornton is the power of Noel Kelly. Why in the name of God did anybody feel that he (Ryan Tubridy) would walk as he was getting €495,000 without a top-up of €75,000?

"Who on the island of Ireland is going to pay him more than this? I think it is a ridiculous scenario the way it was presented."

[seafoid]

https://twitter.com/RTE_PrimeTime/status/1674086589570375680

[rrhf]

https://twitter.com/RTE_PrimeTime/status/1674086589570375680

RTE were paying for Tubridy either through lost service or rediverted revenue or provision services such as these Parties and ultimately the tax payer. It has all the look of a machinism to avoid scrutiny on the deal.. otherwise good business would not be conducted in that manner. If this was a private company the term backhander might be used even if not strictly speaking correct.

[rrhf]

https://twitter.com/RTE_PrimeTime/status/1674086589570375680

RTE were paying for Tubridy either through lost service or rediverted revenue or provision services such as these Parties and ultimately the tax payer paid. It has all the look of a machinism to avoid scrutiny on the deal.. otherwise good business would not be conducted in that manner. If this was a private company the term backhander might be used even if not strictly speaking correct. However unless anyone can come up with another reason for this complicated machinism other than hoodwinking the Irish taxpayer then please do so.

[seafoid]

https://twitter.com/RTE_PrimeTime/status/1674086589570375680

RTE were paying for Tubridy either through lost service or rediverted revenue or provision services such as these Parties and ultimately the tax payer. It has all the look of a machinism to avoid scrutiny on the deal.. otherwise good business would not be conducted in that manner. If this was a private company the term backhander might be used even if not strictly speaking correct.

It looks awful. Everyone ese was getting pay cuts.

[Joeythelips]

So we are meant to believe Ryan Tubridy quit on one day and the next day an audit starts looking at this? Coincidence or was he aware that this issue was coming down the track. Why the hell are RTE presenters paid so much money? Its mental. Do they think the place will fall apart if they left?

Pat Kenny was the main man in RTE, very good presenter etc but was on crazy money and left to Newstalk. His radio show had the highest listenership but Sean O Rourke took it over and listenership went up. Its a joke. Ironically their main job is to tell the truth and find out the truth is to inform the public. TO be fair the majority of workers at RTE are just like the rest of us and earn far less than the money Tubridy was getting from Renault for a few appearances, let alone his wages.

We need to get the truth on this asap.

[tiempo]

16 March tendered his resignation
17 March auditors contact board about concealed payments

The boul Ryan was forewarned

[5times5times]

Any good twitter feeds tracking the whole mess folks?

[imtommygunn]

Joe Brolly seems well versed in it 

[trailer]

Paddy Kielty on €250k per season. Not his fault that he's been dragged into this shit show.

[Rudi]

Paddy Kielty on €250k per season. Not his fault that he's been dragged into this shit show.

Autumn, Winter & Spring - 750k for the year -thats better than Tubsidy

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2023/06/29/watch-live-rte-pay-scandal-latest-ryan-tubridy-salary-controversy-pac-oireachtas-committee-dee-forbes/

Here's our political correspondent Jennifer Bray.

"An act designed to deceive" – these were the words of Siún Ní Raghallaigh, chairwoman of the RTÉ board. By any measure, it's a stunning statement but one which gets to the heart of the matter around the underrepresentation of payments to Ryan Tubridy.

It is significant, too, that the Public Accounts Committee has been given extra powers including around compellability, meaning that when former director general Dee Forbes is well enough to do so, she will likely be ordered to appear before the PAC.

Furthermore, acting director general Adrian Lynch told the committee that RTÉ's executive board failed to ensure good governance.

It's a long way off the original statement made by RTÉ when this scandal broke, where the blame almost seemed to be directly squarely on Ms Forbes and away from the board, as it was contended that it did not have enough information to discern the full facts. Now, Mr Lynch says the entire executive board will be reconstituted.

13:47
More from Ms Ní Raghallaigh:

"Finally, can I say something about the use of the word 'talent'. Words matter and the term, as it is currently used, reinforces a 'them and us' culture in RTÉ.

"It implies some have greater worth than others. The first step in cultural change is to consign this term to the dustbin."

13:42
RTÉ board chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh has not held back at the Public Accounts Committee.


"As a trained accountant and a former financial controller, I am appalled as to how payments were recorded and presented in the RTÉ accounts.

"What was the motivation here? It appears to me that this was an act designed to deceive."

13:34
Here's more from our political reporter Jack Horgan-Jones:

Acting Director General Adrian Lynch will signal a shake-up of top executive ranks at RTÉ following the scandal over Ryan Tubridy's pay. In an opening statement to PAC this afternoon, he will restate RTÉ's "deep regret" and concede that the executive board "failed in its responsibility to act as a collective and failed to ensure good governance in this matter".

He will add there was an "overreliance on the prerogative asserted by the director general [Dee Forbes].

"We acknowledge and accept this failure by those members of the executive who were aware of the contract."

He will say that he has spoken to Kevin Bakhurst, the incoming Director General, and that he understands Mr Bakhurst's "first task will be a reconstitution of the Executive Board of RTÉ".

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https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2023/06/29/watch-live-rte-pay-scandal-latest-ryan-tubridy-salary-controversy-pac-oireachtas-committee-dee-forbes/

14:45
Political correspondent Jennifer Bray writes: Committee members are now getting into the crux of the issue now: how the €75k top-ups were made and why the invoices were labelled as being for "consultancy fees."

Paula Mullooly, director of legal affairs of RTÉ, told the committee that it was "highly inappropriate" that the invoices were labelled as consultancy fees, when it has since emerged that they were top-up payments.

Some of the most revealing exchanges so far have been between Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster and RTÉ's chief financial Richard Collins, who has revealed some significant new information.

The committee was always going to want to know if these payments, and how they were described, rang alarm bells.

So did they?

It seems the answer from Collins was both yes and no. He described asking Dee Forbes what these invoices for "consultancy fees" were for. The conversation happened after the auditors let their concerns be known.

"I can't remember exactly how she explained it. It was to do with how RTÉ was structured during Covid-19. It was advice that Dee Forbes had received around how RTÉ structured itself and presented itself during Covid-19. I relayed back what I was told."

Collins then said: "She gave what appeared to be a plausible explanation."


And yet, under further questioning from committee chair Brian Stanley, Mr Collins then said: "I was concerned, but I knew that the director general had a close relationship with Noel Kelly."

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2023/06/29/watch-live-rte-pay-scandal-latest-ryan-tubridy-salary-controversy-pac-oireachtas-committee-dee-forbes/

14:08
RTÉ acting director general Adrian Lynch has described the arrangement made with Ryan Tubridy whereby RTÉ underwrote the deal with Renault as "absolutely appalling".

He says the only evidence he has found is that this was a deal agreed between director general Dee Forbes and NK Management on May 7th, 2020.

Fianna Fáil TD James O'Connor has queried why the agent Noel Kelly has a "God-like status" within RTÉ.

[Saffrongael]

RTE used the Barter Account to spend €138k on 10 year IRFU tickes, €111k on Rugby World Cup tickets for clients in 2019 and €26k on 2019 Champions League final tickets. #RtePAC