Former RTÉ top brass of Cork’s blue-bloods and Fine Gael families
WHEN Dee Forbes joined RTÉ as director general in 2016, her closest contact at board level was chair Moya Doherty.
But by the time she left, it was the then head of strategy Rory Coveney, informed sources told the Irish Mail on Sunday. Rory is the brother of Enterprise Minister and Fine Gael deputy leader Simon Coveney, the son of former TD Hugh Coveney and – like Forbes – is from Cork.
His brother Patrick Coveney, former CEO of Greencore and now head of UK food company SSP – where he earned €2 million last year – sat on the board of Munster Rugby with Forbes.
His father was a chartered surveyor by profession and knew Ms Forbes’s current partner, Dennis Horgan, who is also an auctioneer.
Forbes also came from a Fine Gael family. Her father, Vin Forbes, a publican and secondary school teacher, was the head of the local Fine Gael Cumann and knew Hugh Coveney.
The Cumann meetings were regularly held in the family’s pub on the village of Drimoleague’s main street.
Like the Coveneys, Ms Forbes was sent to boarding school for her secondary education.
She attended the Sacred Heart convent in Clonakilty, while the six Coveney brothers went to the exclusive Clongowes Wood school in
Co. Kildare, where their father was also educated.
Ms Forbes still sits on the board of the Ludgate remote working hub in Skibbereen, beside Anne O’Leary [a Cork native and CEO of Vodafone Ireland and not the RTÉ board member], who also sat on the board of Greencore when Patrick Coveney was CEO.
Although Ms Forbes is still officially a board member, a fellow Ludgate board member told the MoS that they had not seen her for ‘at least a year’.
Ms Forbes also socialised with the Coveneys in Cork, attending fund-raising events.
In 2018, then tánaiste Simon Coveney officially opened the new offices of a legal practice on the South Mall, where Dennis Horgan provided the aerial photographs that adorned the walls.
This week the Oireachtas Media Committee heard Ms Forbes and Mr Coveney were accused of ‘deliberately circumventing’ procedures for the disastrous Toy Show the Musical, which recorded a loss of €2.3 million. It also heard the ill-fated event was not brought before the RTÉ board’s audit and risk committee for signoff, as required.