RTÉ spending €800k per year on vehicle rental and servicing

RTÉ has retained the services of Co Kilkenny-based company Holden Plant Rentals for the provision of 'corporate fleet management services' since February 2017 at an estimated cost of €600,000 per year. Picture: Larry Cummins

RTÉ is spending nearly €800,000 per year to rent cars and service its own fleet of vehicles, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

The broadcaster has retained the services of Co Kilkenny-based company Holden Plant Rentals for the provision of “corporate fleet management services” since February 2017 at an estimated cost of €600,000 per year.

RTÉ currently has a fleet of 63 vehicles, including 42 owned by the broadcaster, 19 long term-rentals with car hire group Europcar, and two such rentals with Holden.

Holden, based in Mullinavat, describes itself as specialising in fleet management and supply for semi-State companies, Government bodies and local authorities.

Such fleet management sees each vehicle licenced to the company, which then processes all of its administration including tax renewal, NCT, and servicing, together with other overheads, such as tolls, parking fines and penalty points.

The company provides 24-hour assistance as part of the agreement, it said.

Holden's clients include the HSE, infrastructure services company Veolia, and building materials giant CRH.

The company has a deal with both RTÉ and its transmission network subsidiary 2RN to provide fleet management services. 2RN transmits the services of RTÉ radio and television, TG4, Today FM, and Virgin Media television across 12 transmitter sites around the country.

It says that, all told, the fleet it manages for the RTÉ group as a whole comprises more than 150 vehicles.

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Paul Holden, managing director of the company, confirmed it was awarded the fleet management contract for RTÉ and 2RN after tendering for it through a procurement process in 2017, which included an option to extend for two years.

That contract is set to go to tender once more later this year, RTÉ said.

Separately, RTÉ’s deal with Europcar was signed for three years commencing in December 2021, with an estimated value of €525,000 for the duration of the contract, or €175,000 per annum, or €9,210 for each of its 19 long-term rentals with the hire company.

Bringing the two deals together the broadcaster is being charged €775,000 per year for the maintenance of its fleet and the rental of vehicles.

In addition, RTÉ confirmed it has only purchased vehicles commercially on two occasions since the deal with Holden began in 2017 — when it bought three Toyota Land Cruisers (following a tender process) for €109,000 excluding Vat in 2019 and two secondhand vans at a cost of €12,900 the same year — all from Holden.

RTÉ bought three Toyota Land Cruisers (following a tender process) for €109,000 excluding Vat in 2019 from Holden.

The news comes as scrutiny of RTÉ’s finances intensifies in the wake of a bruising two weeks which saw director general Dee Forbes resign and former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy taken off air amid reports of “concealed” payments totaling hundreds of thousands of euro to the organisation’s star presenter.

Public Accounts Committee member and Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh said the spending raises further questions.

"This is a significant expenditure of taxpayers money and RTÉ should be fully accountable when it comes to taxpayers' money," he said.

While he said it is "entirely possible that all of this can be accounted for" the Green Party TD added that it amounts to "substantial spending of taxpayers money".

He suggested that RTÉ should now be made accountable to the Oireachtas and should have to lay its accounts before the Houses to allow for "direct oversight" around money being spent by the State broadcaster.