UNDER-FIRE MINISTER’S VERSION OF RTE EVENTS IS DISMISSED AS ‘FULL OF HOLES’
FORMER Chair of the Board of RTÉ Síun Ní Raghallaigh’s explosive statement yesterday is littered with contradictions of Minister for Media Catherine Martin’s account of the controversy. Labour TD Alan Kelly has claimed it shows that the Minister’s version of events is now ‘full of holes’.
He earlier expressed concern that the Minister was not being kept informed by her officials of matters relayed to them on RTÉ, and questioned why she was being kept in the dark, if that decision was done deliberately.
Here are a selection of the contradictions, which are likely to be further unpicked in the days ahead:
1 ‘The chair is my link to the board’ – Catherine Martin
Ms Martin consistently repeated during her appearances before the Oireachtas Media committee and Dáil that her relationship to RTÉ was through the chair, who has now claimed the Minister took a ‘hands off’ approach during her 15 months as chair of the RTÉ board.
Ms Martin has said: ‘My relationship with RTÉ, as Minister with responsibility for media, is through the chair.
‘This relationship is fundamental to the development of a positive and productive future for the organisation. Confidence in the reliability of communications between both is absolutely critical, particularly at such a sensitive time in the broadcaster’s history.’
However, Ms Ní Raghallaigh fuelled the ‘hands-off’ narrative around Ms Martin’s handling of the crisis, by stating yesterday: ‘In my 15 months as Chair, I only had a handful of meetings directly with the Minister.’
She also said that most of her engagement with the Minister’s department was through her department officials on a daily basis, raising the question why Minister Martin did not have more meetings with the chair or seek details on exit packages.
2 Did Siún refuse to accept a letter from the Minister? Not as claimed, says former RTÉ chair
Ms Martin told the media committee her ‘confidence had been rocked’ the day of her Prime Time interview as Ms Ní Raghallaigh told her she was ‘not willing’ to receive a letter expressing disappointment from the Minister.
However, the former chair explained yesterday she was trying to protect RTÉ from the controversy she predicted it would cause.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh stated yesterday: ‘During the course of the following 9.5 hours, following my phone call at 10.07 to the Department on February 22nd, there were a number of calls between Department officials and myself.
‘During these conversations, I was actively trying to get my point across as to how a letter from the Minister would be damaging to the urgent work the board and the Department were engaged in.
‘I was suggesting to the officials that this is a time when we need the Minister’s support, that I owned my mistake, I apologised for the error, and would the Minister consider acknowledging and accepting the clarification this would be the best course of action for the organisation and not cause a significant impasse to the current work on reform being undertaken at RTÉ.’
3 The disputed October 10 phone call about the former CFO’s Richard Collins’s exit payment
Minister Martin has repeatedly insisted that while RTÉ relayed details to her then secretary general, Katherine Licken, about Mr Collins’ package, this was about the process, rather than being told a package had been finalised and approved.
Minister Martin said: ‘I discussed this matter with the former secretary general yesterday and today to check if this was the case.
‘She has been clear that while she was informed by phone that the independent mediation process on an exit package for Mr Collins had finally reached a conclusion. She has no recollection of being told that it was approved by the board’s remuneration committee.’
Yesterday, Ms Ní Raghallaigh again insisted that the minister’s secretary general was not kept in the dark.
She stated: ‘Mr Collins’s exit package had been discussed by the Remuneration Committee on October 9th 2023 which I attended, and was officially approved by the Committee on the morning of October 10th 2023.
‘On my call to the Department on the 22nd February, I reminded the officials that on the morning of October 10th, I had spoken by phone with the then secretary general about the October 9th meeting and had given her the details of that meeting, and what, in broad terms, had been approved by the Remuneration Committee in relation to Mr Collins’ exit package.
‘It is inaccurate to state anything other than that I told the secretary general of the Department about the decision of the Remuneration Committee in respect of the Richard Collins case. I have no doubt at all on that matter. After all, the purpose of the phone call on October 10th, 2023 was to report on the outcome of the mediation with Mr Collins’ lawyers the day before as instructed to the Remuneration Committee and recorded in the minutes.’