Irish premier, unions and politicians call for Dee Forbes’ committee appearance

Senior government figures and unions representing RTE staff have said that former director general Dee Forbes should appear before committee this week.

Ms Forbes announced her resignation as the head of Ireland’s public service broadcaster on Monday, after days of pressure following the revelation that undisclosed payments worth 345,000 euro were made to star presenter Ryan Tubridy.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Ms Forbes should still appear before the Media committee on Wednesday and Committee on Public Accounts on Thursday due to examine corporate governance at the national broadcaster this week.

Ms Forbes was suspended from the position last week and was already due to step down from her role next month, with Kevin Bakhurst due to take over from mid-July.

In a statement, Ms Forbes said: “I regret very much the upset and adverse publicity suffered by RTE, its staff and the unease created among the public in recent days.

“As director-general, I am the person ultimately accountable for what happens within the organisation and I take that responsibility seriously.

“I am tendering my resignation to RTE with immediate effect.”

Ms Forbes said she had consistently co-operated with the processes directed towards answering questions surrounding payments to Tubridy, which was done in an attempt to retain Mr Tubridy and to make “a cost saving for RTE in respect of a contractual payment which was due to be paid”.

She also said the matter has had “a very serious and ongoing impact on my health and wellbeing”.

She added: “I am deeply sorry for what has happened and my part in this episode and for that I apologise unreservedly to everyone.

“I care very deeply about RTE, the people who work for it, the public it serves, its mission, values, its unique position as a public service broadcaster and its reputation. I will continue to do so as RTE moves forward under the new director general.”

RTE apologised last week after admitting that between 2017 and 2022, former Late Late Show host Tubridy received a series of payments totalling 345,000 euro (£295,000) above his annual published salary.

The issue of the 2020-2022 undisclosed payments was discovered during an audit of RTE’s accounts, which was then referred to Grant Thornton to examine further.

Adrian Lynch, appointed as deputy director general last week, said it was unknown why the undisclosed 2017-2019 payments were made, and Grant Thornton is investigating the anomaly.

In the wake of the payments controversy, unions representing RTE staff have said there is “unprecedented levels of anger” and called on Dee Forbes to appear before the upcoming committees – along with all current members of the executive board.

The RTE board acknowledged receipt of Ms Forbes’ resignation, and noted that representatives of the board and executive will be attending the committees this week, but did not clarify which members.

Some of RTE’s top earners have also revealed their salaries and denied that they benefited from barter advertising deals, including Claire Byrne, Joe Duffy and Miriam O’Callaghan.

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, who is a member of the Public Accounts committee, has also called on Patrick Kielty to reveal how much RTE is paying him to host The Late Late Show.

The Government has initiated a review into the governance of and culture at RTE, expected to take up to seven months to complete, and has suspended work on reforming the TV licence in the interim.

Both Mr Varadkar and Tanaiste Micheal Martin have called on Ms Forbes to appear before committee, with Mr Martin calling for a “full presentation” of events.

Speaking to reporters during an event at Dublin Castle, Mr Varadkar said: “I think people would like to hear her side of the story and her version of events.

“It is still open to her to attend the committee hearings and I think she should.”

He said he was “very disappointed” about the RTE payments scandal but has confidence in the broadcaster’s board.

Mr Varadkar added: “I do want to point out that RTE is a big organisation, the vast majority of people who work in RTE would have no knowledge or involvement in this whatsoever and indeed the board would have only known about it relatively recently.

“We need to make sure we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater here.”

Mr Varadkar said there is a need for individual accountability over the matter.

In her statement, Ms Forbes said RTE began discussions around the renewal of Tubridy’s contract in early 2020, which contained payments that had been negotiated and put in place prior to her arrival at the broadcaster.

RTE had committed to reducing fees paid to top talent by 15% and that she led discussions between senior executives at RTE and Tubridy’s agent.

In light of this part of the statement, the National Union of Journalists said the chair of the RTE board should now meet every member of the broadcaster’s executive to clarify their individual involvement.

The agreement meant a commercial partner would enter into a separate commercial contract with Tubridy for 75,000 euro in exchange for the provision of three events annually, which RTE guaranteed and underwrote.

Ms Forbes said the pandemic restrictions meant that the commitment to the commercial client could not be met in 2020 and 2021 and was only delivered in 2022, which resulted in using a commercial barter account to honour the payments.

“We were motivated purely by the need to find a solution to honour the contractual obligation,” Ms Forbes said.

“At all times, I and the representatives of RTE acted in good faith.”

She added: “This statement is directed to the events of 2020-2022. I understand from media reports and RTE’s statement that the board has raised questions concerning payments to Ryan Tubridy between 2017-2019.

“I have no knowledge of those payments and the board has not raised those questions with me.”

Brian Stanley, the chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, said the committee would have to accept the situation if she is experiencing serious medical issues, but added: “What I would expect is that, medically, if she is fit to attend on Thursday, I would expect her to come.”

The RTE board said it will issue a “comprehensive statement” on Tuesday afternoon of its understanding of circumstances which led to the mis-stating of Tubridy’s earnings between 2020-2022.

However, the circumstances of Tubridy’s mis-stated earnings for 2017-2019 are being separately investigated and will not be included in Tuesday’s statement.