RTÉ board members may face fresh Oireachtas committee following Grant Thornton review

RTÉ board members may face an Oireachtas committee hearing before the Dáil recess ends, after a new report reignited questions about corporate governance at the broadcaster.

Executives and board members from RTÉ faced a series of bruising encounters in July in front of the Oireachtas media committee and the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Now, after the publication of a Grant Thornton report on the treatment of aspects of Ryan Tubridy’s pay between 2017 and 2019, Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth, who chairs the media committee, said she believes another committee meeting before the Dáil resumes regular sittings may be in order.

Asked if she felt it could wait until the Dáil returns from its summer break, Ms Smyth told The Irish Times: “Personally, I don’t think it can.”

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She said she wants to hear from members of the RTÉ board, including its deputy chair Ian Kehoe, that have not been before the Oireachtas committees during the controversy.

She said it would be “really critical”, in light of the findings from the so-called “Grant Thornton 2″ report which was published on Wednesday, to hear from other members of the board.

[ Does Ryan Tubridy have a future at RTÉ? Kevin Bakhurst seems to think so ]

The latest report outlines several aspects of poor governance including significant deficiencies in internal management controls, failures in finance and a lack of communication from the executive to the board. It found that Mr Tubridy’s earnings figures from 2017 to 2019 were publicly understated due to adjustments made by RTÉ's financial department – without the involvement of the presenter or his agents.

The report “suggests a hypothesis” that these adjustments were made so that revised earnings were below a figure of €500,000 in each year. Mr Tubridy waived a €120,000 exit fee from a contract he signed in 2015, with the broadcaster later reducing his pay for 2017, 2018 and 2019 by a combined total equivalent to this sum to give the impression he was paid less than he was.

The report found that those involved in finance in RTÉ had the opportunity to “raise a flag” that earlier proposed accounting treatment of adjusting 2017, 2018 and 2019 was “no longer appropriate”.

The remuneration and management development committee of the RTÉ board was not provided with details of top talent earnings before its publication in January 2021. Deloitte, the broadcaster’s auditor, provided “independent reasonable assurance reports” on top talent earnings for these years, which Grant Thornton found that it was reasonable to conclude RTÉ “placed some reliance” on these reports.

Ms Smyth said her intention was to convene a private meeting of the media committee next week, and potentially to issue invites to a public session two weeks later.

“One aspect that really hasn’t had any interrogation is the piece with the board’s lack of information in all of this,” she said. “That becomes really evident and clear and without any ambiguity in this report, that the executive did their own thing with no reporting into the board.”

Senior Government sources said the latest report’s publication had not fundamentally changed the political view over the crisis, saying there was not “anything new that we did not know” in it. They emphasised the need for RTÉ to undertake credible reforms before a financing package was agreed as there was a fear of “throwing good money after bad” stalking the Coalition.

Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee said he felt there was now a need for another hearing attended by Deloitte, as well as senior executives past and present – including Richard Collins, the current chief financial officer, his predecessor Breda O’Keeffe, former director general Dee Forbes and head of content Jim Jennings. Ms Forbes and Mr Jennings are yet to appear before any committee on the matter on health grounds.

In a statement on Wednesday, Minister for Arts and Media Catherine Martin said the report highlighted further “deeply concerning” lapses in governance and the “failure of proper internal controls and processes within RTÉ”.

She said she had spoke to Siún Ní Raghallaigh, the RTÉ chair, and “stressed the need for RTÉ to act with urgency to address these lapses and ensure that robust processes are put in place without delay”.