€1.25m went through RTÉ ‘slush fund’ barter accounts
RTÉ audit and risk committee chairwoman Anne O'Leary and former chairwoman of the RTÉ board Moya Doherty arriving for yesterday's PAC meeting at Leinster House. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA
RTÉ’s controversial barter account was used to pay for €275,000 worth of tickets and travel for clients to Rugby World Cup and Champions League matches — spending that was described as “outrageous” by its own chairperson.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also heard it is “possible” that Ryan Tubridy stepped down from The Late Late Show because of the pending controversy over secret payments to him.
In another bruising day for the State broadcaster, the PAC heard:
- €1.25m went through barter accounts in the last 10 years in what was described as a “slush fund”;
- RTÉ board chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh described the secret payments of €340,000 to Mr Tubridy as an “act designed to deceive”;
- RTÉ chief financial officer Richard Collins said that “maybe the taxpayer was defrauded”;
- RTÉ will publish details of its top 100 earners;
- Incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst has committed to reconstituting the RTÉ’s executive board.
It has also emerged that Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly are to be called before the Oireachtas media committee next Wednesday as the controversy rumbles on.
The State broadcaster has been engulfed in crisis after it was revealed last week that it had under reported Mr Tubridy’s salary by a total of €345,000 over the period 2017 to 2022. The presenter has been off the airwaves since the details were made public with doubts over his future.
His replacement as host of The Late Late Show, Patrick Kielty, yesterday revealed he will be paid €250,000 per year in a three-season deal. Mr Kielty said he has waived €50,000 flight and accommodation costs which he is entitled to as part of the contract.
RTÉ’s appearance at the PAC yesterday heard a number of new revelations, including that an initial probe into two payments to Mr Tubridy happened after auditors Deloitte were “unhappy” with an explanation given by RTÉ as to why those payments had been labelled as “consultancy services”.
It also heard of other payments which had flowed through a UK-based barter account, including €111,000 spent on trips to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, €138,000 on a number of 10-year IRFU season tickets, and €26,000 on a trip to the 2019 Champions League Final in Madrid.
All told, up to €1.25m had passed through that account over the past 10 years, according to chief financial officer Richard Collins.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh said the spending was “outrageous” and the account was subsequently described by former RTÉ chairwoman Moya Doherty as a “slush fund”.
“I’m not here to justify the barter account,” Mr Collins said. “I wasn’t happy with it when I first saw it. I can’t speculate on what it was used for.”
Meanwhile, interim RTÉ deputy director general Adrian Lynch said the first action of the new director general Kevin Bakhurst, who is set to take up that role on July 10 following the resignation of Dee Forbes last Monday, will be a “reconstitution of the executive board” of the broadcaster.
That nine-person committee has come in for a great deal of criticism in recent days for a perceived lack of oversight leading to the scandal involving the previously undeclared payments to Mr Tubridy.
The PAC heard repeatedly the arrangement struck with Renault, and underwritten by RTÉ, to pay Mr Tubridy €75,000 per year from 2020, was, in the words of Ms Ní Raghallaigh, “an act designed to deceive”.
Pressure is mounting on the Government, which will be forced to take a position on whether a legal salary cap for presenters should be put in place in RTÉ. Cabinet will have to take a stance on a bill being brought forward by Senator Rónán Mullen next Wednesday which would limit the amount that RTÉ can pay to the same amount as a minister’s salary, which stands at €195,161.
