PUT RTE PAY BACK UNDER RY OF STATE
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THE possibility of figures relating to Ryan Tubridy’s salary being “deliberately misrepresented by RTE” cannot be “discounted” a new PAC report has found.
The Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee has called for bringing RTE back under the statutory remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
PAC also called for no more “side deals” for presenters like the one put in place for former Late Late Show host Tubridy, and no more confidentiality clauses in severance packages and for the salaries of anyone earning more than €150,000.
There was also a recommendation for RTE to develop a “policy for its staff and contractors in relation to promotional work and use of social media”. This should be done, PAC member and Fianna Fail TD Cormac Devlin said, to prevent people “privately profiteering from their reach on social media utilising RTE resources”.
The lengthy PAC report contained 21 recommendations and a list of “conclusions” following a spate of hearings with RTE.
The meetings initially were held off the back of revelations that Tubridy’s salary was undeclared by RTE by €345,000 over a five-year period.
This was due, in part, to the creation of a “side deal” that saw RTE underwrite a €75,000 a year commercial deal with Renault.
While Renault paid Tubridy for year one, RTE ended up giving Tubridy €150,000 when they pulled out of the deal.
PAC recommended that there should be “no side deals (commercial or otherwise), akin to that agreed in addition to
Tubridy’s 2020-2025 contract” agreed to by RTE for any employees or contractors.
In relation to how Tubridy’s salary was declared, PAC stated: “The Committee questions the accounting practices in place at RTE, given that it published the earnings of its 10 most highly-paid presenters, with such a significant understatement of earnings in the case of its most highly-paid presenter. In light of the evidence presented to the Committee, any objective assessment could not discount the possibility that the figures were deliberately misrepresented by RTE.
“The Committee is not satisfied with RTE’S explanation as to how and why the exit fee was offset against, and subtracted from, Mr Tubridy’s earnings as originally published for 2017, 2018 and 2019. At best, this arrangement points to a complete failure in financial controls at the broadcaster.”
The Committee also recommended coming down harder on other contractors who are doing promotional or social media work in addition to their
Committee is not satisfied with
RTE’S explanation
ON QUERY ABOUT EXIT FEE ARRANGEMENTS
RTE duties. The report said: “The Committee recommends that RTE develops a policy for its staff and contractors in relation to promotional work, and use of social media, and that RTE reports back to the Committee on this matter in June 2024.”
Deputy Devlin explained: “I think around the Renault deal, which obviously a lot of our committee engagement was around, was in the news there was concern about other promotional material at that time by some presenters.
This recommendation is to highlight in detail what we expect from the broadcaster so there aren’t individuals who are privately profiteering from their reach on social media utilising RTE resources or their position within the organisation.”
When asked if there was a concern about RTE contractors receiving things like free upgrades, Mr Devlin said there was “no evidence of that” but pointed out there has been a crackdown on all influencers declaring goods for tax purposes.
PAC Chairman Brian Stanley also said it was an important recommendation to ensure there were no “conflicts of interest”.
The Committee’s vice-chair Catherine Murphy said that while contractors are free to do other work outside RTE, there should be “clear rules about how the assets of RTE are used”.
Other recommendations included bringing RTE under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General, invoices issued by RTE being “clearly and accurately labelled”, publishing the salary received by each member of staff at the broadcaster earning more than €150,000 and that the “terms of any future exit agreements with staff do not contain any confidentiality clauses”.
There are also calls for RTE to disclose activity and revenues through the barter accounts in its yearly reports and for the Department of Media to provide a report in June 2024 on the total level of lost TV licence revenue.
Labour’s Alan Kelly said that how “basic” some of the recommendations were shows how “bad the situation in RTE had become”.
Ms Murphy said that some of the things that PAC had to recommend were “bog standard”, while Mr Stanley said RTE and Government would need a “damn good reason” not to accept the recommendations.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin said yesterday afternoon the report will be “considered” by the Government now that it is published.