The chairman and woman of two Oireachtas committees have indicated they are willing to reconvene meetings during the summer recess to interview key witnesses who were absent from last week’s hearings on secret payments to Ryan Tubridy.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Brian Stanley and Media committee chairwoman Niamh Smyth said on Sunday they would facilitate a summer meeting to ask questions of former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, the broadcaster’s head of content Jim Jennings, or former financial controller Breda O’Keeffe, if any of them indicated they were willing to appear.
Both committees believe they have sufficient documents but the testimony of Ms Forbes, Mr Jennings and Ms O’Keeffe would be helpful in filling the gaps of knowledge regarding key decision-makers for the arrangement struck with Late Late Show sponsors Renault and who was aware of the details.
“I hope they will make themselves available,” said Mr Stanley yesterday. “If they make themselves available we hope to meet them at the earliest opportunity.”
Similarly, Ms Smyth said that if any of the three indicated a willingness to come before a committee, she would arrange for a special meeting to be convened during the summer recess.
It comes as new RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst plans to contact Tubridy this week in relation to his future with the broadcaster.
In an interview at the weekend, Mr Bakhurst told The Irish Times he was willing to meet Tubridy and intended to have several conversations with him before making the critical decision as to whether or not he will be given a new contract.
Mr Bakhurst was adamant, however, that he would not meet or talk directly to Noel Kelly, Tubridy’s agent. “I can choose with whom I have my conversations,” he said.
It is known that Ms Forbes and Mr Jennings have health problems at present and are not in a position to attend. Ms O’Keeffe wrote to the Public Accounts Committee last week indicating she would not appear. The broadcaster’s former chief financial officer had spoken at a meeting of the Media committee the previous week.
Documentation provided by Mr Kelly and Tubridy to the committees last week included an email indicating that Ms O’Keeffe was aware the agent was seeking a letter of guarantee for his client in February 2020 that the broadcaster would underwrite a commercial deal between Tubridy and Renault worth €75,000 a year during negotiations for his contract. Committee members said that RTÉ executives had suggested to it the previous week that the letter of guarantee was known only to Dee Forbes and not to others. In the email, Ms O’Keeffe (copying in Dee Forbes and head of content Jim Jennings) outlined a willingness to “provide you with a side letter to underwrite this fee for the duration of the contract”.
It also emerged Ms O’Keeffe had taken a voluntary exit package from RTÉ of which its executive board should have been aware. Two redundancy schemes at RTÉ have caused controversy among staff because of what is claimed to be a lack of transparency as to the reasons why applications were accepted or rejected. It was disclosed yesterday that RTÉ did not conduct reviews of both schemes as it was required to do. Mr Bakhurst has said that was one of the reasons he has ordered an examination of both.
If the three witnesses decline to attend committee hearings, there are powers to compel them but they are complicated and can take time. The Public Accounts Committee has convened a meeting for the middle of October to further discuss the issue with a view to issuing a report by the year-end.
“We have most of the key documents to start to write a report,” said committee member Paul McAuliffe. “The question is have we heard all the evidence? I think it would be hard to understand everything without the input of Dee Forbes.”
