What’s happening today?
RTÉ executives and board members appeared in front of the Oireachtas media committee. The broadcaster has told the committee it is “working to cut costs” in the face of declining TV revenues, with the current crisis jeopardising the future of RTÉ, public media and the Irish audio-visual sector.
The committee heard from RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst and RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh and from several members of the board who have not been in public session before – including deputy chair Ian Kehoe. Senior executives Adrian Lynch, Mike Fives and Paula Mullooly are also attending, as are board members Daire Hickey, Robert Shortt, Jonathan Ruane, Anne O’Leary, Aideen Howard, Connor Murphy and PJ Matthews.
Mr Bakhurst told the media committee that since he took up his position eight weeks ago he has moved “decisively and quickly” to address “clear procedural and oversight failings within the organisation”. He told it that an outline plan to overhaul the broadcaster will be ready next month, with a “full strategic reform and transformation plan by the end of the year”.
In an email to staff this morning he also announced a recruitment freeze with “immediate effect” and said the broadcaster was stopping “all discretionary spend” to preserve cash.
Hearing also heard that there has been “legal correspondence” from Ryan Tubridy’s team over the end of his contract with the national broadcaster.
Mr Bakhurst said there was no mechanism to pursue Mr Tubridy for €150,000 that he had agreed to repay as part of the new contract that was withdrawn.
Key reads
- Eight new things we learned about the RTÉ pay controversy
- RTÉ announces recruitment freeze
- RTÉ paid €650,000 in car allowances last year with no proof of licence required
And speaking of ending it, the hearing has now ended.... But it is unlikely to be the last we hear of the controversy.
As the hearing comes to an end, Mr Bakurst is about the ending of the contract negotiations with Ryan Tubridy.
“I don’t want to be unfair on Ryan but there was an issue for me about accepting the facts as they were outlined [in the Grant Thornton report] and whether the various payments of 75,000 pounds (sic) have been part of his remuneration package and that had been established... I felt to move on you had to accept the facts and you had to also accept you had some role in it although RTE was largely to blame. Im my view I’m afraid that wasn’t forthcoming so that was why we ended it.”
Richard Boyd Barrett says he will continue to call for more investment for public sector broadcasting despite the controversy and points out that “given that it was all about those excessive salaries shouldn’t you have come in today with proposals for salary caps because that would address one of the key areas.”
“I agree with a lot of your anger,” Mr Bakhurst says in response. “My long term aim is to protect the people who do the job day in day out... it is frustrating in the extreme that a small number of people have inflicted this on an organization which has huge value to most people in the country and all I can focus on is delivering transparency, tackling inequities and inequality where I see it in the organization.
“I do understand for many licence fee payers €160 is a lot of money and you’re making choices sometimes between do you spend it on the licence fee or do you spend on school uniforms... but I would just ask people to look at what they actually are getting from RTE and our value and the changes we’re trying to make and I’ll do everything I can to continue making the case and to continue giving them an RTE that is worth investing in.”
Robert Shortt, the staff rep on the board, says the paying of the TV licence is very serious issue and he takes exception to Mr Griffin’s suggestion that he’d be better off buying a round of drinks in his local.
He says that as a board “we did ask a lot of questions” but “not enough questions... That is a matter of profound regret.”
“I’m perfectly willing to own whatever mistakes we made but I also think that paying your license fee is an extremely serious matter and should be taken seriously by everybody,” Mr Shortt says.
Mr Griffin interupts to say that he can “understand why people don’t want to [pay] because there’s no confidence in you that’s the problem, it’s your mess and you still don’t get it.”
Mr Shortt says again that he has “made it very clear that I am willing to accept whatever shortcomings we did along the way I would also remind you that we did set this ship some float, that when the irregularities were discovered we proceeded despite knowing what damage was going to happen to the organization and you’re right the license fee collapsed... I stand over what we did and I’m willing to take responsibility for the mistakes that may have been made along the way but I do think that paying your license fee is extremely serious and I don’t think that comparing it to buying a round of drinks is appropriate.”
Former Director General Dee Forbes comes up again. “I had cooperation from Dee Forbes for the first couple of weeks after I was appointed but before all this was known”, Mr Bakhurst says in response to a question from Labour’s Marie Sherlock.
He says he has had no contact since the crisis begain.
“Jim Jennings (Director of Content) I’ve been in contact with. Since the crisis started I’ve spoken to Jim, really to find out how he is because his health is not good”.
He adds that Mr Jennings wants to appear before the committee but has been advised not to on health grounds.
Ms Sherlock also asks if there have been staff appointments without open competition? “Yes - there has been one. There might be two, for business reasons”, Director of Human Resources Eimear Cusack responds
There are some tetchy exchanges between the RTE executives and board members and Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin who asks if “anyone on the board raised objections prior to [Toy Show The Musical] becoming a flop?”
Ms Ní Raghallaigh says there was a presentation to the board and adds that there are “serious questions and serious reviews” around “governance” on the matter.
“I wouldn’t trust you with €160″, Mr Griffin says “never mind €160m.” He also points out that his licence fee is due but says the money might be better spent on a round in his local pub.
He asks about the infamous barter account and calls it a “slush fund”.
Mr Bakhurst objects to that term and says the barter account has been reformed.
Mr Griffin also asks it the filing of the 9am slot that used to be occupied by Ryan Tubridy will be impacted by the recruitment freeze and is told that any exceptions to the recruitment freeze will have to come before the management team for sanction.
And this
Time for talk of the Toy Show musical and accountancy practices. Jack Horgan Jones has a take on that.
Journalist Ian Kehoe of the Currency and deputy chairman of the board is making his debut at the hearings. “I think we’ve seen the best of RTÉ but unfortunately we’ve also seen the worst of RTÉ. I think the chair described the events as being unseemly and it’s portrayed RTÉ in a really bad light, rightly so.”
However he said that it was important to “look at all the work that the journalists have done in order to pursue the story vigorously and not turn a blind eye to it.” He said they “showed a level of professionalism” that the board could be “really proud” of.
He pointed out there has “been enough blame to go around and the board has to own an element of that blame as well but one thing I will say is that when we learned about this in March when we first got calls that there may be an issue around [under-reporting of payments to Ryan Tubridy] we didn’t back down and we pursued it and we kept on pursuing it and we put all of that information into the public domain as quickly and as transparently as we possibly could knowing and we all knew that it would have significant reputational consequences for the organisation but as a board we felt it was the right thing to do.”
Mr Bakhurst tells Mr Cassells there had not been any threat of legal action from Ryan Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly “in respect of him as suppose being frozen out by you in terms of not negotiating with him.”
Mr Bakhurst says Noel Kelly has “not been frozen out by me, in fact I’ve openly said to a number of people that they’re free to use whichever agents they want to it’s just my personal choice. I’m not negotiating with Noel Kelly.”
That’s a real case of “You say frozen out, I say I’m not negotiating with him” I suppose.
The Committee is on a break now.
In response to a question from Fianna Fail senator Shane Cassells about the €150,000 that Ryan Tubridy was going to pay back if and when his contract was renewed, Mr Bakhurst makes it clear there is no mechanism to pursue that money now.
“We have no legal tools to pursue him, I’ve said what I have to say about it which is I think there’s a moral case to pay it back but I also understand that you know as a result of where negotiations went Ryan doesn’t have a source of income at the moment.”
He is also asked if there has been any legal contacts between Mr Tubridy and his representatives and RTE and the answer is yes there has been legal correspondence about the ending of the contract.
You can expect to hear a lot more about that in the coming days, I suspect.
And more from Jack
Jack Horgan Jones is following proceedings for us. Here are some of his tweets.
Ciaran Cannon says he is “no expert in terms of real estate” but then says he reckons the land around Montrose is worth around half a billion euro. He also wonders why RTÉ has to be based in Dublin, never mind Dublin 4. He suggests that maybe Galway would be an alternative option.
It is worth noting that Mr Cannon is from Galway.
Mr Bakhurst says “everything is under consideration” and says that includes moving more staff out of Dublin.
“As for Galway I think you’ll find the chair is quite supportive of. your suggestion,” he concludes to gentle laughter from the room.
“I would have hoped executives would have owned their mistakes.... but that didn’t happen.” Siun Ní Raghallaigh says in response to a question from Fine Gael’s Ciaran Cannon about whether or not we are any closer to finding out exactly what happened and why it happened - when it came to the the under-reporting of Ryan Tubridy’s salary. Mr Bakhurst says that the full details of what happened might not emerge but he expresses confidence that it will not happen again.
There has been a lot of talk of RTÉ “running out of runway” when it comes to funding in the last few minutes. The reason that metaphorical runway is disappearing before the broadcasting plane lands (or takes off, maybe) is the €21 million hole in funding that has materialised as a result of a precipitous decline in licence fees this year.
People Before Profit TD is not in the room but is making his view known.
Responding to a typical forthright sequence of questions from Sinn Fein’s Imelda Munster, Mr Bakhurst says he does. not understand why a 10 per cent pay cut for the senior management team was reversed and not reported to the Media minister Catherine Martin’s department. He says he is “sickened” about the absence of transparency.
She also addresses the 61 car allowances given to staff. Mr Bakhurst says he does not know if any of the 61 do not have a drivers licence but says it should not be called a car allowance.
Ms Munster says the hearing was “blatantly misled” when it was told that Soho House in London was used exclusively for business meetings because RTÉ no longer had an office in London. She says documents which have recently come to light show this was not true.
“I find it shocking that we had that membership. there was a period we didn’t have a London office. I don’t see any reason to have membership of an expensive club in London,” Mr Bakhurst says.
“We’re not paying it,” he says when asked if the membership had been cancelled or not.
“I would say that I find it shocking in the first place that we had that membership to be honest with you,” he also says and later adds: “I don’t start to understand some of these decisions that were made, to be honest with you.”
Mr Carrigy also asks if RTÉ chair Siun Ní Raghallaigh is the “right person” for the job.
“Whether I am the right person, I suppose, is a decision for the Minister,” she says.
She also addresses a question about the 2017-2019 overpayments.
“We knew they were incorrect, we didn’t know why.”
She says if all the people involved in the process are not involved than answers may be elusive. “I can’t force people to the table,” she says, a reference we must assumer to former DG Dee Forbes, who has yet to appear before any hearings.
Wrapping up his question time, Niamh Smyth asks Mr Carrigy if he is happy.
“No,” is the terse answer.
First question goes to Fine Gael senator Michael Carrigy “I want to know on behalf of the tax payer what you have put in place in terms of cost cutting”.
He also asks if consideration has been given to selling Montrose and relocating to a new site.
Kevin Bakhurst is the first to answer. “Clearly I have been here eight weeks and we have spent time addressing the emergency....”
He says “all options are on the table” when it comes to Montrose. He says a valuation is underway at the moment.
He also points out that some of the buildings on the site are listed.
He says that a valuation figure of €500m is “not right”... but stresses that he “can’t speak to that until I get a professional valuation”.
In case you have found yourself wondering, here are the members of the Oireachtas Media Committee who will be asking the questions today.
Hearing is underway now. First we have the usual preamble from chairwoman Niamh Smyth after which we will have the opening statements and then it will be over to the public representatives.
“Commitment not achieved” is what I say to myself each evening as I review my to-do list and am forced to acknowledge that I have once again neglected to crack on with Middlemarch or fix the kitchen light that broke three years ago. Coincidentally, the phrase pops up 17 times in RTÉ's newly-published 2022 annual report.
Good piece on the state of RTÉ from Laura Slattery that we published earlier this week.
We simply acted under instructions from RTE
And here’s the former presenter on being cancelled.
Ahead of today’s hearing it might be worth spending a moment revisiting some of the highlights of hearings past.
Here’s Ryan Tubridy on his desire to return to Montrose.
We have some early doors analysis from our own Jack Horgan Jones.
“RTÉ's opening statements have landed, simultaneous to an all-hands email to Montrose staff outlining a hiring freeze,” He writes. “Following on from a document dump on Monday which detailed a range of spending on allowances and payments to staff, the stage is well and truly set for RTÉ's latest jaunt to the basement committee rooms in Leinster House.
“What’s interesting about the opening statements is the degree to which both Kevin Bakhurst and Siun Ní Raghallaigh are seeking to shift the frame to longer-term funding issues at RTÉ.
“Yes, both make the by-now-customary noises of contrition and grief at what has befallen the broadcaster, but the chair and DG are picking up where predecessors left off in emphasising that it is government, not RTÉ, who holds the whip hand when it comes to making calls on the long term funding model for the station.”
He notes that “RTÉ has to be careful here: sounding contrite while conjuring the old begging bowl is unlikely to go down well. So it’s no surprise that they’re also putting an emphasis on high-visibility cost cutting actions like the hiring freeze announced today. To stand a decent chance of achieving goals in the middle of a crisis which have eluded their predecessors, they will have to sustain their requests for more money with a drumbeat of actions that look like tangible internal reform.
The RTÉ chair Siun Ní Raghallaigh will tell the committee that inquiries into the Toy Show musical and voluntary redundancy schemes at the broadcaster “will be published as soon as possible” in the wake of a period that has been “unseemly, and highly damaging for RTÉ”.
She will stress that the board is committed to structural and cultural reform, drawing attention to the immediate funding shortfall: “This is currently an organisation under immense pressure across a number of fronts,” she will say, arguing that there are immediate financial pressures and also that “a secure future for RTÉ means having purpose and direction and making choices and taking decisions”.
Kevin Bakhurst is going to use his opening statement to call on Government to tackle the funding crisis at the broadcaster head on, refocusing attention not just on RTÉ, but on the broader structural changes to the broadcasting model in the state which the station says the coalition must address as RTÉ works on internal reforms.
“All of these reforms will be undermined if the question mark over the funding of public service media in this country is not properly resolved,” he will say. The TV licence and the methods for collecting it “are no longer fit to support the provision of public service media to the people of Ireland”.
“The current crisis has made the problem even more acute and jeopardises the future of public media, and RTÉ, and the viability of Ireland’s audio-visual sector.”
First up, we have some breaking news.
RTÉ has announced a hiring freeze. In an email to staff this morning, the broadcaster’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst said RTÉ is introducing a recruitment freeze with “immediate effect” and stopping “all discretionary spend” to preserve cash “while we get clarity on our financial position going forward”. “I regret having to do this as it will impact on our coverage and on our investment in equipment and our digital plans. However, given the steep fall in the licence fee and the uncertainty over interim funding, it is the only responsible thing that we can do”.
So, here we are again. Another chance for RTÉ senior executives and board members to appear before an Oireachtas hearing. I am Conor Pope and I will be looking after our Live Story from now until the curtain comes down on today’s proceedings.
