Oireachtas committee must stick to public spending remit in questioning RTÉ officials on pay controversy

Oireachtas committees questioning RTÉ officials this week must stick to matters of public expenditure and accountability and not prejudge the hidden pay crisis at Montrose, academic sources have said.

The committee hearings are highly anticipated as the national broadcaster grapples with the fallout from the controversy arising from the failure to disclose €345,000 in payments to top-earning presenter Ryan Tubridy.

Senior RTÉ staff, including former director general Dee Forbes, have been invited to attend the media committee on Wednesday in what will be the first time RTÉ executives have been subjected to questioning by Oireachtas members since the controversy erupted.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will seek RTÉ attendees to appear before it on Thursday.

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Both committees are likely to receive legal guidance in advance of the hearings on how they may proceed to ensure an approach that is appropriate and in keeping with statutory functions.

The high-profile hearings follow a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that the PAC had acted unlawfully in its treatment of former Rehab chief executive Angela Kerins when she appeared before two hearings in 2014.

Ms Kerins, who is pursuing damages, has said the impact of the “witch hunt” style of questioning amid controversy over her €240,000 salary caused her to become so unwell she attempted to take her own life.

Although the committees have an obvious function in examining the current crisis at the national broadcaster, one senior legal source said: “The Angela Kerins case makes clear that there is a difference between the public interest and [another] interest.

“You might be interested in other things which might be salacious or controversial but what the Public Accounts Committee is interested in is the public expenditure and the reasons for that and how that’s accounted.”

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There is an onus too on committee members to be fair and open-minded, and the chair will play a critical role in shepherding questions and conduct, according to the source.

Regardless of the Kerins ruling, politicians in public hearings dealing with matters relating to public money are entitled to ask questions in a strong manner and to express any scepticism, the legal source added.

Dr Tom Hickey, associate professor in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, said the Kerins case had surprised constitutional lawyers because the Oireachtas holds an extraordinary level of constitutional immunity.

However, he also noted the Supreme Court judgment’s emphasis that this immunity continued to be extremely high and there were very particular reasons for its decision in that case.

“It’s a very high threshold to cross for somebody to make a challenge and win,” he said of committee challenges.

“A committee like PAC have a great deal of scope and the courts won’t intervene readily, even after Angela Kerins.”

Fellow DCU academic Dr Eoin O’Malley, an associate professor in political science, also noted that RTÉ officials may be eager not to stonewall.

“PAC is obviously allowed to ask questions about how was money spent and how was it accounted for and things like that, so I don’t think there will be any restrictions on PAC going down those lines of questioning,” he said.

[ Seven RTÉ executives and board members invited to appear before Oireachtas committee ]

[ Politicians to seek answers from RTÉ on Tubridy payments scandal ]

Some uncertainty remains as to whether Ms Forbes, who resigned as director general on Monday, will take up the invitation to attend, despite mounting political pressure to appear.

Should it deem it necessary, members can request the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to compel a witness to give evidence, although this process can take longer.

In such successful situations, a person may be “directed” to attend, give evidence and provide documents. Where somebody fails to comply, the committee chair can seek a court order.

Ms Kerins is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling in a second appeal in her long-running quest for damages over her 2014 appearance before the PAC. That appeal relates to the High Court’s dismissal of her pretrial request for documents held by Dáil Éireann to aid her in her claim that her constitutional rights had been breached.