Presenter Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly will be accompanied by solicitor Joe O’Malley when they appear before two Oireachtas committees on Tuesday to discuss €345,000 in payments which were made to the broadcaster by RTÉ over the course of seven years.
Mr O’Malley is managing partner of Hayes Solicitors and requested to attend the meeting in a supporting role to the two witnesses. The legal firm has also informed both committees it will not be in a position to provide opening statements in printed form until 8.30am on Tuesday.
It is usual for those appearing at an Oireachtas committee meeting to supply opening statements on the eve of its appearance.
On Monday, Hayes Solicitors, was in correspondence with the clerks of the two committees – the Public Accounts Committee, and the Arts and Media Committee – and indicated it was “working on the relevant booklet of documents” that would be submitted to the Committee.
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The committee chair, Brian Stanley of Sinn Féin, is understood to have agreed to Mr O’Malley’s attendance on condition that he does not directly address the meeting and operates in a supporting role only.
Similarly, the Committee on Arts and Media, which meets on Tuesday afternoon, has informed its members that Hayes Solicitors would not supply a statement until Tuesday morning. The committee is due to meet at 3pm, with both Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly attending.
The remit – and therefore the line of questioning – of both committees will be different.
The PAC will address the commercial arrangements entered into by RTÉ and its presenters, including those underwritten by RTÉ. It will explore whether they had any impact on the expenditure of public money.
In the afternoon, the Arts and Media Committee will examine issues surrounding the transparency of RTE’s expenditure on the former Late Late Show host’s payments of €345,000, which were not publicly disclosed. It will also ask a series of questions in relation to governance at the national broadcaster.
Both Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly agreed to appear before the committee voluntarily.
There are strict rules that apply to witnesses who attend such committees who are not members of the Oireachtas.
Following a judgment in the Supreme Court that found that some questions asked of former Rehab chief executive Angela Kerins at a PAC meeting in 2014 were inappropriate, an Oireachtas working group on parliamentary privilege and citizens’ rights recommended that a committee was required to act in accordance with, and within, its terms of reference and its remit.
The Supreme Court found that the PAC acted significantly outside its powers at the 2014 hearings.
However, it is expected that both committees will be keen to ascertain Mr Tubridy’s awareness of the arrangements put in place to protect his income and whether he was aware that the totality of his income was not publicly disclosed. He has already apologised in relation to the matter but may take the opportunity to do so again when he appears before both committees.
