RTÉ’s former Director General Dee Forbes won’t go before the Oireachtas Arts and Media committee on Wednesday, despite calls for her to do so.
The committee is to hold a hearing at Leinster House on Wednesday, to discuss RTÉ’s ongoing payments scandal.
A spokesperson for Ms Forbes said: “She will not be attending due to health reasons. We have informed the committee.”
RTÉ was plunged into chaos last week 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.
On Thursday, 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.
Resigning from her post on Monday, Ms Forbes said the situation had taken a “very serious and ongoing” toll on her health.
The earnings of RTÉ’s top presenters will now be subject to an external review to see if their reported salaries are actually correct.
After Ryan, the highest earners are Joe Duffy, Claire Byrne, Ray D’Arcy and Miriam O’Callaghan.
All four of the top broadcasters have addressed the scandal over the past number of days, with Claire, Miriam and Ray all disclosing their salaries.
On Tuesday afternoon, around 200 RTÉ employees joined a protest in Donnybrook organised by the National Union of Journalists.
Speaking at the protest, Sinéad Hussey admitted she feels “let down” by the situation.
She told RTÉ News: “I feel very let down as a staff member, but I feel very let down for the public.”
“The public that we ask every day: ‘Can we come into your house? Can we interview you?’,” Sinéad continued.
“And we feel very betrayed and I think it’s important to show today that we won’t accept this, we want RTÉ to reform, so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Siún Ní Dhuinn, who works with RTÉ Digital, said: “I’m protesting because I’m disappointed and I’m angry. Like the public, the staff feel the same. We’ve been let down by senior management, by the board, by the exec. So we’re here to protest that and we want better standards for the public which we’re serving every day.”
Drivetime researcher Fiona Donnellan said: “I think we need way more transparency in the organisation. Staff feel really betrayed by what’s been revealed over the last six days and we want answers.
