‘We have been deceived’

Deputy Niamh Smyth, says “serious questions need answering” when RTÉ executives appear before her later today (Wednesday, 1:30pm).

The Cavan-Monaghan TD is the chairperson of the Oireachtas Media Committee who will quiz senior members of the RTÉ’s executive board on whether they had direct or even indirect knowledge about previously undisclosed payments of €345,000 made to former Late Late host Ryan Tubridy.

RTÉ says it will publish “as much as possible” from an external review into undisclosed payments made to the TV and radio host between 2017 and 2022.

Former RTÉ boss Dee Forbes, who has since quit the national broadcaster, claims the payments made in 2020-2022 were a result of honouring contractual obligations after the pandemic hit. But she maintains she was unaware of other payments allegedly made between 2017-2019.

Ms Forbes is among those invited to appear to answer questions before the Oireachtas committee, as is Geraldine O’Leary, Director of Commercial; Jim Jennings, Director of Content; Richard Collins, Chief Financial Officer; Adrian Lynch, Director of Marketing; Roy Coveney, Director of Strategy; and Siún Ní Raghallaigh.

Expected to be asked is the nature of the undisclosed payments made, the procedures in place that led to under-reporting, the policies that permitted such arrangements, and the steps taken since to rectify the situation.

“This is about our public broadcaster, and the misleading of the public, the government, the minister, and ultimately the Oireachtas committee that I chair.

“We have not just been misled, we have been deceived, because the salary figures that are published do not reflect the actual figures. My understanding is there are a few key people at the heart of this, it does not extend beyond that, but at our committee we intend to ask the pertinent questions about how this came about over the past five to six years. What the public want to know is, has this ever occurred before or was this a new arrangement for one individual?”