RTÉ Board Chair Siún Nà Raghallaigh has acknowledged the organisation’s “bond of trust with the public is tarnished”.
The Oireachtas Media Committee held a hearing at Leinster House on Wednesday, to discuss the misstating of payments to Ryan Tubridy, which hit headlines last week.
In her opening statement, Ms Nà Raghallaigh said: “At the outset, I wish to reiterate our profound regret regarding what has emerged in recent days. RTÉ fell far short of the standards expected of us as an organisation.”
RTÉ Board chairperson Siún Nà Raghallaigh has made her opening statement to the Oireachtas committee. Ms Nà Raghallaigh has said the ‘bond of trust with the public is tarnished’ | Follow live updates https://t.co/y0sVdO04oe pic.twitter.com/R54kSYm7Jp
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 28, 2023
“I apologise for this egregious breach of trust with the public. I am also mindful that this Committee, and others, were in the past presented with information that was simply untrue.”
“That was a breach of trust with you, the elected members of the Oireachtas, for which we sincerely apologise.
“The public, RTE staff, and public representatives are angry and hurt. We know that our bond of trust with the public is tarnished. We know that trust is precious, and that once lost, trust is difficult to regain,” she continued.
“Step by step we will work to rebuild that trust. We will not flinch in this regard. We know that this will be challenging, but we are committed to doing so, in order that confidence in Ireland’s national public service broadcaster can be restored.”
“We are committed to providing you with as much detail as possible and we wish to be as open and frank as we can.
“As you know, and as set out in our statement of last week, in late March of this year during a routine audit of RTE’s 2022 accounts, an issue was identified in relation to the transparency of certain payments.
“The auditors sought further information and informed the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTÉ Board of their concerns. The Audit and Risk Committee promptly commissioned Grant Thornton to carry out the independent fact-finding review on the matter in question.
“The facts were established by Grant Thornton and presented to the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTE Board on Friday 16 June 2023 and then to the RTE Board the following Monday June 19 2023.”
“On receiving the Grant Thornton findings, the Board asked RTÉ to conduct an internal review of earnings paid to Mr Tubridy in previous years, and through that review it was identified that Mr. Tubridy’s remuneration had been understated by RTÉ by a figure of €120,000 over the contract period of 2017-2019.
“To be clear, this was understated in the figures that were published by RT relating to the top 10 highest earning on air presenters, which in turn were communicated to Government and the Oireachtas and to the public.
“Mr Tubridy’s earnings were correctly accounted for in the RTÉ accounts, and the earnings he received were what he was contractually entitled to. In addition, for the record, I want to confirm that he did not receive an exit fee,” she said, referencing his departure from The Late Late Show earlier this year.
“The circumstances that led to this understatement by RTÉ are currently under examination by a second Grant Thornton review and the findings of that review are expected within four weeks. Why this figure was understated – and by whom – that is the question we as a Board are also very anxious to know the answer to.”
“Within four days of the first Grant Thornton review being received by the RTÉ Board on Monday June 19th the Board released a statement outlining our understanding of Mr Tubridy’s earnings, including for the period 2017 – 2019.
“This issue has remained under active review and yesterday RTÉ issued a further statement, detailing its understanding of what happened, how it happened, and who was responsible for different aspects of the arrangement. The full Grant Thornton fact finding review was also published yesterday.
“Separately, we will of course be working closely with all aspects of the Government appointed independent, external review process when it commences.
“I also wish at this point to acknowledge the upset and distress being caused to the independent production sector in Ireland, a community I know well. Their wellbeing is very much contingent on the wellbeing of RTE also.”
“As I have said previously, RTÉ is an organisation of more than 1,800 people. I apologise to each and every one of them for the distress they are experiencing as they deal with the shadow that has fallen over this organisation.
“I want to assure this Committee and the public that the Board is committed to ensuring that we get full clarity on this, that there is accountability for it, and that it never happens again.
“In conclusion I wish to say that today we will endeavour, to the very best of our ability, to answer, all questions you may put to us. As public representatives you deserve nothing less,” she added.
Ms Nà Raghallaigh is one of four members of the RTÉ Executive Board, who are in turn among seven representatives from the organisation who attended the hearing today.
Board members Anne O’Leary and Robert Shortt attended the meeting, alongside Interim Deputy Director General Adrian Lynch, Director of Strategy Rory Coveney, Director of Commercial Geraldine O’Leary, and Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins.
On Tuesday, the former Director General Dee Forbes said she wouldn’t be attending for health reasons.
RTÉ has been at the centre of controversy since 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.
Last week, 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 has since resigned from her role.
On Tuesday, RTÉ released a lengthy statement addressing the misstating of payments to Ryan from 2020 to 2022.
The statement claimed that no member of the RTÉ Executive Board, other than the Director General, had all the necessary information in order to understand that the publicly declared figures for Ryan Tubridy could have been wrong.
The statement did not explain the under-reporting of his pay between 2017 and 2019 as it is the subject of a separate review.
Since the scandal broke, Minister Catherine Martin has ordered a full review of RTÉ’s governance and culture.
The review will assess whether RTÉ’s governance framework is fit for purpose, and will review its approach to financial management, the workplace culture in RTÉ, and relations between senior management and staff.
The earnings of RTÉ’s top presenters will also be subject to an external review to see if their reported salaries are actually correct.
