Leo Varadkar has called on Ryan Tubridy, Noel Kelly and Dee Forbes to appear before an Oireachtas Committee.
Speaking to RTÉ News, the Taoiseach said: “We are trying to get to the bottom of what happens when it comes to these unusual, clandestine payments at RTÉ.”
“RTÉ executives and board members have come before Oireachtas Committee to answer questions, but there are others who could shine light on this.”
“I believe that they should be willing to come before the committee and answer questions”
Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar says that Ryan Tubridy, his agent Noel Kelly and former RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes should appear before an Oireachtas Committee |More: https://t.co/oIpUCa2ORg pic.twitter.com/IojgH24ET9
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 29, 2023
Mr Varadkar continued: “They include Ryan Tubridy, they include his agent, they include Dee Forbes, and I think that they should be willing to come before the Committee and answer questions.”
“There are procedures, they will be treated fairly and I think that would be the right thing to do from their part.”
“They may have a story to tell and I think it’s right that they should be able to tell their side of the story.”
The Committee held a hearing at Leinster House on Wednesday, to discuss the misstating of payments to Ryan, which hit headlines last week.
Committee chair Niamh Smyth later since said, in light of yesterday’s hearing, she will propose inviting Ryan and Noel to give evidence.
During the hearing, the RTÉ Executive Board and other representatives from the organisation faced tough questioning over the scandal.
Board members Siún Ní Raghallaigh, 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.
In an opening statement at the hearing, RTÉ Board Chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh acknowledged the organisation’s “bond of trust with the public is tarnished”.
Tensions were high during the meeting, as Fianna Fáil’s Shane Cassells asked the Board: “How did you allow one man and his agent to become bigger than RTÉ?”
The Senator claimed “this man and his agent” jeopardised the reputation of RTÉ, and dramatically asked: “Was it worth it?”
RTÉ has been at the centre of controversy since it was revealed that Ryan’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 later 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.
