Today’s bombshell revelations involve a serious breach of trust
Senior RTÉ management must appear before the Public Accounts Committee before the summer recess to explain its secret payments to Ryan Tubridy, according to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy.
Deputy Murphy, who is vice-chair of the PAC, has written to the PAC to request the appearance of RTÉ before the Committee in the coming weeks. She said:
“RTÉ has confirmed it has now directed Grant Thornton to review the contracts of their top 10 paid presenters after it revealed that it secretly paid Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than his publicly declared payments over a six-year period.
“The covert nature of the payments to Mr Tubridy, and the use by RTÉ of a barter account, raise serious questions that demand urgent answers.
“Today’s bombshell revelations involve a breach of trust from an organisation that has repeatedly put on the poor mouth about its dire financial situation when seeking an increase in the television licence fee.
“It should also be noted that these secret payments to one of its stars were made at a time when ordinary workers at RTÉ were being subjected to pay cuts, pay freezes and redundancies.
“This controversy raises crucial issues about corporate governance and controls within an organisation which is tasked with holding others to account with its public service journalism remit.
“I have today written to the Public Accounts Committee requesting a detailed note on the situation from RTÉ. In addition, senior management from RTÉ and officials from Minister Catherine Martin’s department should appear before the Committee in advance of the summer Dáil recess.”
June 22, 2023