PAC 'in a strong position' if they opt to compel witnesses as RTÉ get second Tubridy report 

Paul McAuliffe said that the Public Accounts Committee will now have the opportunity to look into the “consistency” of the evidence that had been presented to the committee by members of staff in RTÉ through the second report. File picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe has said that the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been informed by Parliamentary Legal Affairs that they are “in a strong position” if they choose to compel witnesses.

Mr McAuliffe, who is a member of the PAC, said they anticipate they will receive a copy of the second Grant Thornton report which has been delivered to RTÉ.

The report, compiled by the forensic accountants, was given to the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTÉ board as well as the broader board itself. It concerns alleged discrepancies regarding Ryan Tubridy’s pay between the years 2017 and 2019.

In late June, when RTÉ first made the public aware of issues regarding Mr Tubridy’s pay between 2017 and 2022, a statement from its board said that along with being paid €225,000 more than was publicly known from 2020 to 2022, the presenter’s pay had also been understated for the years 2017-2019 by €120,000.

However, while the later payments related to the by-now infamous tripartite deal involving Mr Tubridy, RTÉ and Renault, the presenter and his agent Noel Kelly claimed when appearing before two Oireachtas committees last month that the €120,000 issue related to a misapplication of accounting rules by RTÉ.

They said that RTÉ had chosen to account for Mr Tubridy having never opted to receive the €120,000 loyalty bonus owed to him at the expiry of his previous contract in 2020 by taking the sum from his actual earnings for the three-year period 2017-2019, when publishing details of its top 10 earners for that period in 2020.

Opportunity

Mr McAuliffe said that the PAC will now have the opportunity to look into the “consistency” of the evidence that had been presented to the committee by members of staff in RTÉ through the second report. 

It will also be an opportunity for the PAC to see the evidence of people who had not come before the committee, either because they were not in a position to do so or they decided not to attend.

“It will be interesting to see what their evidence or what their involvement in this report will be," Mr McAuliffe told Newstalk Breakfast on Tuesday. 

Questions still remain about accounting practices in RTÉ and for auditors about the balloon payment of €120,000 to Mr Tubridy at the end of his prior contract in 2019, he added.

“I think the Public Accounts Committee are very conscious that in the overall scale of public spending this is a small story, albeit one that strikes to the very heart of trust. We are hopeful that we would wrap this up, that we would get these answers and that we will be able to publish a report.

“We have a Public Accounts Committee scheduled for the end of October. And I suppose it isn't clear yet who will appear before us," Mr McAuliffe added. 

Mr McAuliffe called on RTÉ to forward the Grant Thornton report to the PAC. It was in everyone’s interests to “give clarity” and to continue the process of providing information without the necessity to compel anybody.

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The question remained of whether it will be necessary to compel former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes to attend the PAC, he said. “Do we need to compel them or will the Grant Thornton report provide the answers?” 

Mr McAuliffe added that Parliamentary Legal Affairs had indicated to the committee that they were in a strong position and if they chose to compel witnesses, they had that option.

It would be very difficult to draw conclusions in the absence of evidence not just from Ms Forbes, but from a number of other witnesses.