Former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes will not attend Oireachtas committees due to health reasons

Former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes. Picture: Alan Hamilton

Former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes will not attend a number of Oireachtas committee hearings to discuss the ongoing scandal enveloping the broadcaster due to “health reasons”.

A spokesperson for Ms Forbes confirmed that she would not be attending the coming meetings, scheduled in order to probe the scandal involving undisclosed payments made to presenter Ryan Tubridy.

Ms Forbes non-attendance had been widely expected after her resignation with immediate effect from RTÉ on Monday morning.

Announcing that resignation, Ms Forbes said that the issue, which first came to light last Thursday, had “had a very serious and ongoing impact on my health and wellbeing”.

The Oireachtas media committee will meet on Wednesday afternoon with a number of representatives from both RTÉ’s board and executive committee to discuss how €345,000 in payments to Mr Tubridy had been made since 2017 but were not publicly announced by the organisation.

RTÉ is also set to appear before an emergency session of the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday afternoon to discuss the matter.

It comes as RTÉ's biggest stars, including Miriam O'Callaghan, Joe Duffy, Ray D'Arcy and Claire Byrne have publicly revealed the full extent of their pay packages, moving to distance themselves from the scandal.

The Government's independent review of the saga will now determine if corporate governance at the broadcaster is fit for purpose.

Media Minister Catherine Martin said RTÉ must urgently put the full facts over the undisclosed payments into the public domain to avoid further damaging public confidence.

In a statement, Ms Martin said she had briefed government colleagues about the external review she ordered. The minister said she expects to finalise the terms of reference of the external review of governance and culture within RTÉ in the coming days.

RTÉ Headquarters in Donnybrook, Dublin 4. An independent Government review will now determine if corporate governance at the broadcaster is fit for purpose.

After announcing she was quitting on Monday, Ms Forbes said she regretted the "upset and adverse publicity suffered by RTÉ, its staff, and the unease created among the public in recent days".

However, the powerful Dáil public accounts committee (PAC) wants further explanations on the matter and is to extend invites to as many as 10 people, either employed by or who are former employees of RTÉ.

Before she announced she would not appear, Ms Forbes was “top of the list” in terms of people the PAC wanted to question. 

Taoiseach Leo Vardakar said Ms Forbes should attend the committee to clarify fully the circumstances of the secret payments.

It is understood that both the current chief financial officer of RTÉ Richard Collins and his predecessor Breda O’Keeffe will be among the invitees to Thursday's hastily-convened sitting.

Amid unprecedented levels of anger from people working in RTÉ, radio presenter Claire Byrne told her listeners that the most recently published fee for her salary of €350,000 was correct for her to present Claire Byrne Live on TV and her daily radio show.

However, as the television show has now ended, her salary has dropped.

"In order to be fully transparent with you here today, I want you to know that my RTÉ fee now is €280,000, and that fee was agreed for presenting this programme," she said. 

That last contract was negotiated by Noel Kelly."

Ms Byrne noted she was paid a separate fee of €25,000 to present the TV quiz show, Ireland's Smartest.

Prime Time presenter Miriam O'Callaghan later confirmed that her salary earnings were as publicly declared — €263,500 — and insisted that she never received additional payments from RTÉ.

Liveline host Joe Duffy also confirmed on Monday's episode of the show that he received €300,000 for presenting the radio programme and €51,000 for his TV work, which includes The Meaning of Life.

According to RTÉ News, other top earners Bryan Dobson, Áine Lawlor, Mary Wilson, George Lee and Brendan O'Connor have all confirmed that their salaries are correct as published in the top earners list in February. 

As reported by The Irish Times, Ray D'Arcy has confirmed that his earnings have been correctly reported and that currently, his salary is €250,000.

"This is a terrible mess. On a human level I feel for the people involved but also share the feelings of anger and disappointment of many people around the country and in RTÉ.

"For the record, I haven’t got an agent. All of my salary figures to date have been reported correctly.

"When asked, I agreed to take a more than 15% cut in 2019. My current salary is €250,000.”

RTÉ top earners in 2021 (published earnings):

• 1. Ryan Tubridy (€440,000)
• 2. Joe Duffy (€351,000)
• 3. Claire Byrne (€350,000)
• 4. Ray D'Arcy (€305,000)
• 5. Miriam O'Callaghan (€263,500)
• 6. Brendan O'Connor (€245,004)
• 7. Bryan Dobson (€209,282)
• 8. Mary Wilson (€196,961)
• 9. Darragh Maloney (€183,738)
• 10. George Lee (€179,131) 

RTÉ has said it will issue a "comprehensive statement" today setting out its understanding of the circumstances surrounding the misstating of Mr Tubridy's earnings. 

The broadcaster will also publish as much as possible of the Grant Thornton review, which was commissioned by the audit and risk committee of the RTÉ board.