'No reason' RTÉ can't reveal settlement for using bogus staff, says Revenue

The Public Accounts Committee had repeatedly stated there should be 'no reason' why RTÉ could not make the nature of the payment known. File picture: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie

The Revenue Commissioners has said there is no reason why RTÉ cannot reveal the nature of a reparation payment the broadcaster made over its use of bogus self-employed staff.

RTÉ recently admitted to the Public Accounts Committee that it had made such a payment after an independent review of its contract staff found 82 of them should have been offered full-time contracts due to the nature of the work they were performing.

However, the broadcaster had insisted it could not reveal the extent of the payment due to it being a “voluntary qualifying disclosure”, and as such, “under the terms of this disclosure the details are not made publicly available”.

The PAC had repeatedly stated there should be “no reason” why RTÉ could not make the nature of the payment known, and had voiced its concerns with Media Minister Catherine Martin regarding the matter.

However, Revenue chairman Niall Cody has now said it is “wholly a matter for the person or body who entered into a tax settlement with Revenue to decide whether it is appropriate to disclose the details of any settlement subject to any legislative constraints which may apply to that person or body”.

Revenue statement welcomed

That correspondence was discussed at Tuesday morning’s PAC meeting, with the Revenue statement broadly welcomed by the various committee members.

“We need to write to RTÉ again, given the public interest and the charge levied on each house in the State,” Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy said.

His party and committee colleague Imelda Munster suggested the PAC forward Mr Cody’s response to RTÉ and invite a response.

“Revenue has made it clear that this is black and white and that there’s nothing precluding them [RTÉ] from doing so,” she said. 

We don’t want the message to go out that RTÉ is stonewalling the Public Accounts Committee. Let’s see if they come clean and furnish us with the information.”

Committee chair Brian Stanley, meanwhile, underlined that the committee is also interested in learning what retrospective payments will be made to those contractors who should have been working directly for the broadcaster, some of whom had been in place in their freelance roles for a number of years.

RTÉ’s most recent response to the PAC had stated that in terms of retrospective payments for the misclassified workers “only the review and formal reclassification and ratification of employment status is concluded”.

“Therefore no financial settlements of this nature have been made,” Vivienne Flood, RTE’s head of public affairs, said.