Taoiseach: It is not credible ex-RTE DG was the only one who knew about payments

Ireland’s premier said it is not credible that RTE’s former director general was the only one who knew about the misreported payments scandal.

Leo Varadkar spoke a day after the broadcaster issued a statement saying Dee Forbes was the only executive who had all the information to know the organisation had published incorrect salary figures for star presenter Ryan Tubridy.

Mr Varadkar said a lot of questions remain about the controversial 345,000 euro of undisclosed payments made to Tubridy between 2017 and 2022.

RTE executives are appearing before an Irish parliamentary committee probing the revelations on Wednesday afternoon.

Several members of RTE’s board and its senior executive team will face questions during what is set to be a lengthy session of the media scrutiny committee.

More questions will follow on Thursday when RTE representatives will appear before the Oireachtas parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

On Wednesday, RTE confirmed talks over a new contract for Tubridy – who stepped down as host of the flagship Late Late Show in May but continues to host a weekday radio show – have been paused pending the outcome of ongoing processes resulting from the payments disclosures last week.

Ms Forbes quit as director general on Monday amid the spiralling crisis.

She will not appear before the committees on Wednesday and Thursday, citing ill health for her absence.

She insisted she did not act contrary to any advice in the contractual dealings related to Tubridy.

Addressing the issue in the Dail parliament on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar said: “While the RTE statement from yesterday shed some light on what has transpired, a lot of questions remain open, so we expect to see a full and open engagement at the Oireachtas committees today and tomorrow.

“And certainly we do not believe it is credible that the former DG Dee Forbes was the only person with knowledge of these events.

“Government and the public expect nothing but full and open transparency from RTE executives and board members when they attend committees of these houses today and tomorrow.”

RTE staff staged protests around the country on Tuesday, demanding answers about the furore.

RTE representatives due to appear before the committee on Wednesday include interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch, commercial director Geraldine O’Leary, chief financial officer Richard Collins and RTE Board chairwoman Siun Ni Raghallaigh.

Fellow board members Anne O’Leary and Robert Shortt will also appear.

Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne will be one of those questioning the RTE representatives at the media committee on Wednesday.

“The crucial thing today is the approach that RTE will take,” he told RTE Radio One.

“The approach of those representatives of RTE today is as important as what they say.

“If they’re going to be co-operative, if they want to get everything out on the table, because the transparency and accountability is critical, that will be welcome.”

Mr Byrne’s party colleague and fellow committee member, TD Christopher O’Sullivan, asked if Ms Forbes could have been solely responsible.

“Clearly other people were aware of elements of what was going on,” he told RTE.

“We need to dig deeper into that, we need to find out exactly who knew what, because, to be honest, it’s not credible really that only one person, when you think about the amounts we’re talking about – 345,000 euro, including TV licence holders’ money – it’s not credible to think that the former director general Dee Forbes is the only one who could have been aware of what’s going on.”

Tuesday’s statement from RTE covered 225,000 euro of fees paid to Tubridy between 2020-2022. It said a report by external auditors Grant Thornton found no illegality in the payments.

A further external review by Grant Thornton into payments of 120,000 euro between 2017 and 2019 is under way, with the findings due within four weeks.

Mr Varadkar said that timeframe is not “satisfactory” and the Government is pressing for the report to be made available sooner.

On Tuesday, RTE said Ms Forbes was not consulted in the drafting of its statement and she may dispute some elements of it.

The Grant Thornton report gave detail of a commercial arrangement involving RTE, Tubridy and a commercial partner that was entered into after Tubridy forewent an exit fee due to be paid at the end of his previous contract.

The statement from RTE explained the terms of this tripartite agreement between RTE, Tubridy and Renault.

This agreement was separate to Tubridy’s central contract with RTE and involved him making appearances at commercial events.

It said Tubridy was to be paid 75,000 euro annually under this tripartite commercial arrangement, with the payments underwritten by RTE.

The payment was made by the commercial partner in the first year. The same sum paid to Tubridy was then provided back to the commercial partner by RTE by way of a credit note on future spending with the broadcaster – meaning the deal was cost-neutral to Renault.

The RTE statement said Tubridy was unaware of the credit note provided by RTE to the commercial partner.

The tripartite arrangement ended during the Covid pandemic, leaving RTE liable for the next two years of payments.

RTE said Ms Forbes verbally agreed to the terms of the commercial arrangement in a video meeting.

The two payments from RTE were paid to Tubridy’s agent using a UK-based barter account.

A barter account is usually used to record the exchange or goods and services.

Due to how a barter account operates, a cash transaction is recorded at a higher gross value than the net sum of the money drawn down.

Grant Thornton said that, on the balance of probabilities, the barter account was used because there were available funds in it and it appeared there was no budget available for the 75,000 euro payments in year two or three of the agreement.

It also emerged on Tuesday that RTE used the barter account to pay for the costs of hosting events for the commercial sponsor in 2022.

These payments were recorded in the barter account at a value of 47,477 euro; the actual cost of these events was 30,586 euro.

The review said there was no wrongdoing by Tubridy or the commercial partner.

Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty criticised the RTE statement.

“I think everybody has questions,” he told RTE’s Morning Ireland programme.

“RTE were warned yesterday from right across the political divide that there needed to be full transparency in their statement.

“They needed to divulge all the information.

“And I think there’s now more questions than ever after what they have announced. It was, in my view, I think they’re still trying to cover their tracks and I think they were very careful in relation to how they presented their statement yesterday.”

Amid the scandal, the Government has ordered an external review into governance and culture at the broadcaster.

Tubridy has been off air since the revelations emerged last Thursday, with a stand-in presenter hosting his weekday morning radio show.