RTE CHAIR’S 3 THREATS TO QUIT IN 5 HOURS
Media Department documents lift lid on calls and meetings
FORMER RTE Chair Siun Ni Raghallaigh threatened three times to resign over five hours last month, documents show.
Information sent from the Media Department to the Oireachtas Media Committee also shows that while the Minister Catherine Martin and the Chair met 15 times in 15 months, they did not meet every month as suggested by Ms Martin.
Last summer, there was a gap of nearly 11 weeks between meetings from November 9, 2023, to January 23, 2024.
There was no meeting for seven weeks between July 6 and August 25 2023. Ms Martin sent the documents to the Media Committee on Tuesday evening.
In a cover letter sent to chairperson Niamh Smyth, Martin said she was enclosing a copy of the letter she sent to Ni Raghallaigh on February 22.
It was sent hours before the RTE Prime Time interview in which Ms Martin refused three times to express confidence in the Chair.
Notes of phone calls between Ms Ni Raghallaigh and the Department of Media from that day show she offered to speak to Ms Martin hours before the RTE appearance.
Ms Martin told the Committee: “Since the crisis at RTE emerged on 22 June last year, I met with the chair on 12 occasions.”
The dates show that she met Ms Ni Raghallaigh most months except for December. Three of the 12 meetings were in February. One was on February 19, while two meetings were held on February 21.
She continued: “I also met with Ms Ni Raghallaigh on December 7, 2022 shortly after her appointment, on February 13, 2023 when I visited RTE, and on May 10, 2023 when I met the former Chair and the incoming DG.
“This brings to 15 the number of meetings I had with the former Chair over the 15 months of her tenure.”
In a statement on Monday, Ms Ni Raghallaigh maintained that she had only met Ms Martin a “handful” of times.
Ms Martin and Ms Ni Raghallaigh’s relationship broke down after the Chair of the Board “misinformed” the Minister twice in a week about the Board’s role in the sign-off of former Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins’ exit package last October.
Ms Ni Raghallaigh rang the Department of Media
Chair stated she was unhappy at being called to another meeting NOTES FROM MEDIA DEPT ON MS NI RAGHALLAIGH CALL
on February 22 to clarify that the Remuneration Committee had signed it off after initially “neglecting to recollect”.
Minutes of phone calls between the former chair and the Department of Media supplied to the Media Committee show that Ms Ni Raghallaigh called at 10am to correct the record.
At 2.30pm, she rang the Department of Media’s Secretary General and “expressed her unhappiness at the prospect of receiving a letter from the Minister which would reflect the Minister’s disappointment at having been given incorrect information earlier in the week”.
It added: “She considered that the receipt of such a letter would demonstrate a lack of confidence in her as Chair and that she felt she would be unable to remain on in the position.”
The Sec Gen called Ms Ni Raghallaigh back at 6.45pm to say Ms Martin was sending a letter and requesting a meeting the next day. The note said: “The Chair stated she was unhappy at being called to another meeting that week.
“She would resign should she receive a letter calling her to such meeting.
“She said she would be happy to speak to the Minister on the phone.”
There was another call at 7.10pm and Ms Ni Raghallaigh threatened to resign again. The letter from Minister Martin said that she was “deeply disappointed that I did not receive the correct information” from Ms Ni Raghallaigh on Collins’ package.
It also invited her to a meeting the following morning to discuss matters further.