Minister for Arts Catherine Martin has ordered a full review of the governance and culture at RTÉ and said its executive board was not told of the hidden payments made to Ryan Tubridy that have caused an “existential” crisis for the national broadcaster.
She also said that it would not be possible to have discussions on how RTÉ should be funded in the future in the absence of trust and that all such discussions would be paused pending the outcome of that review.
She added that she could not say who signed off on the hidden payments and she had not been told by RTÉ chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh why outgoing director general Dee Forbes had been suspended on Wednesday.
The Minister confirmed that the external review into the governance and culture at RTÉ was to be launched within weeks with the announcement coming as interim deputy director general of RTÉ Adrian Lynch apologised to staff for the breach of trust and confirmed that all new contracts would be paused until reforms of the system were introduced.
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The 90-minute meeting between the Minister and Ms Ní Raghallaigh on Saturday concluded with Ms Martin announcing the review which would be in addition to an internal review of the contracts offered to the broadcaster’s top presenters and an external review focusing on the same issue.
Leaving the meeting, the RTÉ chairwoman said it had been “very constructive” but declined to comment further ahead of a meeting of the RTÉ board. It subsequently released a statement in which it committed to working “closely with the forthcoming external review” so that “full confidence in Ireland’s independent, public service broadcaster can be rebuilt”.
In the statement Ms Ní Raghallaigh said that “separately, [the board] have already put a number of immediate steps in place to ensure that there is no recurrence of these matters, and we will also work to complete the second Grant Thornton report as quickly as possible. On behalf of the Board of RTÉ, I want to apologise again to the public for this breach of trust, and also to the staff of RTÉ who work so hard on a daily basis to serve the public,” she concluded.
Ms Martin said RTÉ was facing an “existential” crisis and described the secret payments controversy as “shocking”, adding that it had “caused untold damage to RTÉ's reputation and to public service broadcasting more generally.”
She said this week’s revelations “signal potential deeper challenges in the organisation” and there needed to be “an external review of governance and culture at RTÉ”.
She told reporters that the purpose of the review would be “to determine what fundamental or systemic issues need to be addressed, including the adequacy of internal controls”.
Ms Martin stressed the need for public trust in RTÉ to be rebuilt and said that the Government‘s decision on the future funding model for public service broadcasting had been paused “until such time as this review is complete and the findings considered”.
She added that officials in her department would develop terms of reference for the review over the coming week and stressed that she would “expect the full co-operation of the RTÉ board and senior executives in engaging with this review and in engaging with Oireachtas committees”.
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She said an external review commissioned by RTÉ to review the remuneration of the top 10 most highly paid presenters would be concluded within two weeks.
Ms Martin told reporters after the meeting that the review would probably not be concluded until early next year but said it was essential as trust in RTÉ had been “really shattered” as she likened it to “an existential crisis”.
She said that to” build back the trust and RTÉ I think we need to have a root and branch review, we need to look at the governance structure, we need to look at the oversight of financial transactions and we need to look at the culture there.”
She was asked if Tubridy should continue to work for RTÉ but said that was “outside her remit” adding that it “would be very difficult for me to express a personal view while I am Minister for Media but that is an operational matter for RTÉ and indeed a matter for the individual themselves”.
The meeting came hours after Mr Lynch apologised to all staff for “the serious breach of trust that has occurred” within the national broadcaster and said all new contracts would be paused until reforms were introduced.
In an email sent to staff on Saturday afternoon, he said he shared their “shock and anger” about €345,000 in hidden payments made to Mr Tubridy over a six-year period.
“This has been a massive breach of trust with the public, and with all of us who have the interest of the public at the centre of our jobs every day,” he wrote, adding that an internal review of other presenters’ contracts had not shown up any similar discrepancies.
He said the executive board was “committed to working with the RTÉ board to ensure that there is appropriate accountability for what has occurred. That process is ongoing, mindful of individual’s rights, and affording them due process”.
He said that a full review of its top 10 most highly paid on-air presenter contracts had been conducted and the review had “found that the full cost to RTÉ of its contracts with the other presenters has been correctly reported”.
He added that steps had been put in place “to ensure there is no recurrence of these matters”, including the internal review of contracts which has been concluded and the external review which is ongoing.
He said that the broadcaster would be republishing the payments to Mr Tubridy in order to correct the record and would pause all new contracts until new processes were in place.
He said the remuneration committee of the board would be given “full oversight and approval of the terms of contracts relating to the top 10 most highly paid presenters in value and any material variations or amendments to those contracts”.
A so-called barter account which had been used to facilitate the secret payments would be brought “within the control of the finance function and that specific controls are put in place for that account”.
Mr Tubridy will not host his radio show next week as RTÉ battles public anger and a political backlash.
After a defiant statement on Thursday in which he did not apologise for his role in the debacle, Mr Tubridy issued a second statement on Friday saying he “should have asked questions” when RTÉ released the misleading information.
“I didn’t, and I bear responsibility for my failure to do so. For this, I apologise unreservedly.”
He was “disappointed” to be taken off the air next week but RTÉ said on Friday that presenters could not be at the centre of controversy. “You can’t do a show that opens up with ‘what it says in the papers’ where you’re at the centre of that story,” said Mr Lynch.
