Minister confirms appointments to oversee reviews into RTÉ
Muireann Duffy
Minister for the Media Catherine Martin has announced the terms of reference for reviews in RTÉ following revelations regarding payments made to Ryan Tubridy.
Two external reviews are to take place. The first will examine RTÉ's governance structures with a view to reforming the organisational culture, while the second will assess the process of external RTÉ contacts, "with a particular focus on gender equality, diversity and inclusion and including issues that have been raised with me by RTÉ staff representative bodies".
The Minister confirmed the first review will be overseen by Professor Niamh Brennan and Dr Margaret Cullen, with a third person to be appointed in the coming days.
The second review will be led by Brendan McGinty, Patricia King and a third person yet to be appointed.
The final report is expected to be received by the Minister within six months of the commencement of the reviews, with interim reports submitted "as required".
Ms Martin noted that, following the appearance of RTÉ representatives before the Oireachtas Media Committee and Public Accounts Committee last week, those committees are "undertaking their own deliberations".
"I will, if necessary, extend the terms of reference of the examination to take account of any further revelations through those Committees or future Grant Thornton reports," she added.
The Minister will also appoint a forensic accountant to examine RTÉ's books "in respect of any financial year of other period", beginning with the controversial barter account and "any other off-balance sheet accounts".
Ms Martin will meet with RTÉ's incoming director-general Kevin Bakhurst and board chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh this Friday to discuss how the broadcaster will engage with the reviews and "the immediate next steps they will be taking on their part".
'No choice'
The chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee Niamh Smyth (FF) welcomed Ms Martin's announcement.
She said the Minister has acted "very robustly", adding: "The [RTÉ] executive have given her no choice."
Ms Smyth told RTÉ radio's News at One: "At our hearings last week, we tried to extract information from them, that was quite difficult and painful. So I am glad the Minister has done it. I think it needs to be done.
I'm glad to see that there are sort of two separate committees going to work in tandem with each other, addressing the critical things here, like corporate governance, like external track and external contractors, and I think it'll be really useful in terms of rebuilding the entity that is RTÉ."
Ms Smyth said the Oireachtas Media Committee will be hoping that the members of the RTÉ executive who attend Wednesday’s meeting will help "put the jigsaw together" of what happened in recent years.
The invitation to former director general Dee Forbes to attend the committee still stands, she said, as members wish to hear her side of the story.
The committee also wants to receive documentation with details of the barter account, along with details of Ryan Tubridy’s contract with RTÉ, expenditure on entertainment for clients and "all the documentation pertaining to the tripartite agreements that led to this crisis in the first place", Ms Smyth added.
The answers to the basic questions of who, how, and when are still awaited, she said. "We still are going round in circles about that."
Ms Smyth said it would be helpful if the members of the RTÉ executive were "a little bit more forthcoming with information [on Wednesday] and give us full disclosure of everything we've asked for at the previous meeting and all the documentation, we could get through this much quicker and in a more coherent way."