Oireachtas committee to meet in public session to discuss second RTÉ report

RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst appearing before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee last month.

The chair of the Oireachtas media committee has said it will meet in a public session once the Dáil returns next month to discuss the second Grant Thornton report into the RTÉ payment controversy.

The committee is meeting in private on Tuesday afternoon following the publication of the report last week.

Among its findings were signs of poor governance, failures in finance and a breakdown in communication between the RTÉ Executive and board.

Oireachtas media committee chair Niamh Smyth said they would do all they could to help the broadcaster "regain the public's trust" in the wake of the Ryan Tubridy 'secret payments' scandal.

"It's important that, finally, we see one part of the challenges for RTÉ has come to and end, which I'm glad to see. We cannot ignore the fact that there is a piece of work to be done around public trust and supporting RTÉ and rebuilding that public confidence.

"The Government were working hard to come up with a funding solution into the future, that has been paused."

Ms Smyth said the biggest thing to come out of the second Grant Thornton report was the "lack of oversight and the lack of good governance".

"I have no doubt that myself and colleagues will want to hear from the board that that has changed and there has been sweeping reforms made that we can be confident that they have the information and are fully informed by the leadership team."

On Friday, committee member Alan Dillon said that he was not in favour of a public committee meeting "for the sake of it".

While Ms Smyth said she took his point, she noted new information would be provided by the numerous reports ongoing into RTÉ.

"I am in favour of holding a public meeting. I think that we have new information and witnesses we haven't heard from at this point. I certainly know that my committee is anxious to hear from Dee Forbes and Jim Jennings. 

"There is no doubt in my mind we will be having a public meeting over the coming weeks."

Ms Smyth noted she had received a letter from Senator Micheál Carrigy asking for the new RTÉ board and director general Kevin Bakhurst to appear before the committee.

In the wake of the publication of the second Grant Thornton report last Wednesday, Mr Tubridy was dropped by RTÉ after talks between the parties broke down.

One of the hosts who has replaced him, Oliver Callan, opened a new programme in Mr Tubridy's radio time slot by addressing the dispute.

Speaking on Monday, he said: “There is a sense of wrong that he won’t be heard here again.”