WHAT’S SO FUNNY?
RTÉ top brass laugh as they leave Leinster House after yet another grilling, but TDs reckon it’s time they got serious
A MEMBER of the Dáil’s spending watchdog has said it ‘beggars belief’ that RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has still not read a key legal note about a meeting between his predecessor, Dee Forbes, and the agent Noel Kelly at which the hidden payments to former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy were agreed.
RTÉ’s continued refusal to release the memo has sparked a significant deterioration in relations between the national broadcaster and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
In a warning to Mr Bakhurst when he appeared before the committee this week, former Labour Leader Alan Kelly said if the PAC was forced to go to court to compel RTÉ’s compliance over the issue, that ‘your position won’t be tenable’.
Fellow PAC member Verona Murphy this weekend hit out at Mr Bakhurst’s claim at the committee that, three months into the job, he had not yet read the memo.
The Wexford TD told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Increasingly, the committee feels that RTÉ are giving us the mushroom treatment [being kept in the dark and fed manure].
‘The admission by Mr Bakhurst that he hasn’t read the memo beggars belief. He is not a solicitor, but he is the director general,’ she said.
‘This is nearly as bad as [recently departed chief financial officer] Richard Collins saying he doesn’t remember his salary.’
This week Mr Bakhurst confirmed that Mr Collins has left RTÉ, but he refused to say if the former CFO received a payoff or exit package, saying he could not speak about ‘individuals’.
But in contrast, he previously confirmed Dee Forbes and
RTÉ’s former head of commercial, Geraldine O’Leary, did not receive a payoff.
‘A flat no from Mr Bakhurst is not an appropriate response,’ Ms Murphy added.
‘The departure of Mr Collins occurs in the midst of extraordinary ongoing circumstances. The normal rules are not applicable here.
‘It is another example of how RTÉ talks about transparency in theory, but then resile from it on each and every opportunity they get to practice it.
‘There are real issues of confidence growing on how effectively Mr Bakhurst has changed the culture of this organisation. The refusal to answer the question on what would be a significant payment for any struggling company does not help this.’
A separate PAC source noted: ‘There were a lot of lawyers in the room who got very alert-looking when the question [about whether or not Mr Collins received a payoff] was asked. People will ask, “Why has the DG taken a different position on this issue?”’
PAC chair Brian Stanley added: ‘A lot of people [in RTÉ] are leaving in situations that are not retirement- or redundancy-centred.
We want to find out if there are rules and processes if a person leaves a top post for this, and if they have been applied.
‘The need for such a process will be in the report, and if there are none then there will be a recommendation for clear rules.’
The Cabinet is also growing increasingly impatient with RTÉ, which this week confirmed it will run out of money by next spring unless it gets a taxpayer-funded multi-million-euro bailout.
One frustrated minister told the MoS: ‘The Government and ministers are getting very fed up of this debacle. If RTÉ do not get their act together, they may find they will be as discontinued as Aertel.’
The minister also expressed ‘surprise’ at Mr Bakhurst’s admission that he has yet to read the minutes from the meeting in which Dee Forbes allegedly gave a verbal agreement to backstop
‘RTÉ are giving us the mushroom treatment’
‘The Government and ministers are fed up’
payments totalling €225,000 to Ryan Tubridy under the infamous tripartite agreement.
‘We find it difficult to understand how Mr Bakhurst has not read this memo. Certainly, it comes as a surprise. It may be the smoking gun, it may not, but you’d expect a higher level of curiosity.
‘Patience is eroding in Mr Bakhurst; he is running out of road and confidence. He talks a great game, but the results are less clear,’ the minister added.