The Oireachtas Media Committee are “happy to receive a written statement” from Dee Forbes over the RTÉ payments controversy.
Just weeks ago, RTÉ was plunged into chaos when it was revealed that Ryan Tubridy’s earnings were publicly understated by €345,000 over the last six years.
The issue was identified during a routine audit of RTÉ’s 2022 accounts, prompting an independent review of the matter.
The RTÉ Board issued an apology over the error, and later Ryan also apologised for not questioning RTÉ over his published earnings.
The scandal resulted in the suspension of RTÉ’s Director General Dee Forbes, who later resigned from her role.
Last Wednesday, the RTÉ Board and executives arrived at Leinster House to provide evidence to the joint committee on tourism, culture, arts, sport and media amid the ongoing scandal.
The following day, they arrived at Leinster House once again, this time to face questioning from the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee.
Notably absent from Leinster House on both occasions were Ryan, his agent Noel Kelly and former Director General Dee Forbes.
Prior to both hearings, a spokesperson for Ms Forbes said: “She will not be attending due to health reasons. We have informed the committee.”
On Tuesday morning, an RTÉ letter was revealed, which shows that the former Director General promised that Ryan Tubridy’s pay would not be cut by the broadcaster.
In July 2020, Ms Forbes wrote to the presenter confirming he wouldn’t see a salary reduction between April 2020 and March 2025.
The letter is addressed to the 50-year-old at the address of his Tuttle Productions Ltd. company.
During the initial hearing, it emerged that RTÉ underwrote a commercial sponsorship of Ryan by Renault.
RTÉ labelled invoices of €75,000 payments as “consultancy fees” and the now-infamous barter account was used to pay them.
It was revealed that these invoices were signed off by RTÉ’s Head of Commercial Geraldine O’Leary, which she claimed was at the request of Ms Forbes.
Senator Malcolm Byrne has since revealed that the Oireachtas Media Committee are happy to receive a “written” statement from Ms Forbes regarding her role in the ongoing payments scandal, if she isn’t medically capable of attending any of the hearings.
The Fianna Fáil politician tweeted: “The Oireachtas Media Committee will meet with Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly next week if an agreeable time can be found.”
“We also look forward to hearing from Dee Forbes and Jim Jennings [RTÉ’s Director of Content] once they have recovered from illness or we are happy to receive written submissions.”
