RTÉ pay crisis: Complaint required for any Garda investigation, says Harris

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said his force would examine any aspect of the remuneration and governance controversy at RTÉ if required to do so, though a complaint would first be required.

“We haven’t received any complaints, and we would only engage if there was elements of deception or dishonesty in respect of behaviour,” he said when speaking to the media after a public meeting of the Policing Authority in Drogheda, Co Louth, on Thursday.

“No complaints have been made to my office and neither do we see that for the moment ourselves. So I think we will await developments. Obviously, An Garda Síochána is prepared to conduct an investigation if necessary but we would need to receive a complaint first.

“Given the complexity of what’s emerging, obviously we can be proactive if we ascertain crime or the allegation or suspicion of crime, but that’s not the area we are in at the moment.”

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RTÉ board chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh told the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday she believed the way some monies were paid to broadcaster Ryan Tubridy were “designed to deceive”. When that was put to Mr Harris, he said anyone with such an allegation to make “would need to bring their concerns to my office”.

Speaking later at the PAC hearing, RTÉ chief financial officer Richard Collins went further still, implicitly questioning the organisation’s assertions that the payments were legal: “My own opinion is maybe the taxpayer was defrauded.”

Meanwhile, speaking in Brussels on Friday morning Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said revelations about RTÉ's barter account were “a matter of real concern”, and suggested that accounting rules and company law may have been breached at the station.

Asked if the allegations of fraud made by some members of the Public Accounts Committee meant this could be a matter for the gardaí to look into, Mr Varadkar said: “I’m not sure we’re at that point yet. But it did concern me to hear that it would appear that payments were made by RTÉ outside contractors for work that wasn’t actually done – and that does raise issues in terms of accounting rules and company law.”