RTÉ's register of commercial activities for news staff to go live next month

Participation with the registers is mandatory, Kevin Bakhurst said. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

A new register of commercial activities for RTÉ news personnel engaged in work outside the organisation will go live from the beginning of February, according to director general Kevin Bakhurst.

Mr Bakhurst wrote to the entire RTÉ organisation by email on Wednesday afternoon to inform staff that the long-awaited register of external activities will go live from February 1.

Separately, RTÉ will begin compiling a register of interests for certain workers "in the coming days”, Mr Bakhurst said.

Both registers were promised by RTÉ in the aftermath of the scandal surrounding hidden payments to former presenter Ryan Tubridy which first broke last summer.

Mr Bakhurst said that the register of external activities for the news and current affairs divisions will introduce a “standardised process” for people seeking approval to engage in activities outside that of their own RTÉ role.

The register will be published on a quarterly basis he said, and will include the name of the employee, details of the activity, and any payment or benefit resulting from the activity “in a banded system”.

Participation with the registers is mandatory, Mr Bakhurst said.

The register of interests meanwhile will be established in keeping with “best practice as recommended by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO)”, Mr Bakhurst said.

It is unclear if the contents of the register of interests will be made public periodically, as is the case with the register of external activities.

Previously the mooted publication of RTÉ’s top-earners, including non-broadcast staff, had created an impasse between politicians and the broadcaster, which claimed that anonymity could not be preserved by publishing such information.

Mr Bakhurst said on Wednesday that the creation of the new registers is an “important” step “in rebuilding and sustaining trust with the public and in demonstrating reform, accountability, and transparency in RTÉ’s operations”.

He paid tribute to the RTÉ Managers Association and the Trade Union Group for their “constructive engagement” during the consultation process.

Of the external activities register, Mr Bakhurst said that an additional oversight group will review all approvals of such activities every six months “with a view to monitoring our decision making, and if appropriate, to recommend any amendments”.

The idea behind the activities register had its genesis in the impression that certain staff had been performing commercial side jobs without appropriate approval from those in authority at RTÉ.

Mr Bakhurst said that henceforth it will be a “fundamental rule” within the organisation that “under no circumstances” should any element of RTÉ’s location, studios, or social media links be used to promote outside commercial interests.

He added that a register of gifts is also in gestation with the broadcaster’s interim leadership team shortly to consider proposals regarding same.