Ministers defend Catherine Martin in wake of Ní Raghallaigh resignation from RTÉ board

Siún Ní Raghallaigh Chair of the RTÉ Board

The Justice Minister has moved to defend media minister Catherine Martin as attention has shifted to what exactly she knew about an exit payoff for a former senior RTÉ staff member.

RTÉ Board Chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh dramatically resigned in the early hours of Friday morning after Ms Martin failed to express confidence in her on PrimeTime.

Ms Martin accused the chair of failing to tell her she approved an exit payout for an executive.

However, in Ms Ní Raghallaigh’s statement, she said she had informed the minister’s department of the payoff deal last October.

“Kevin Bakhurst brought the exit of Rory Coveney from RTÉ, announced on Sunday 9th July, to my attention, while the exit of Richard Collins was brought to and approved by the Remuneration Committee of the Board of RTÉ on October 9th 2023,” she said.

“I informed the Department about the process which led to Richard’s departure from RTÉ, on October 10th, the day after it was approved at the Remuneration Committee,” she added.

When asked about this, justice minister Helen McEntee told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that Ms Martin had asked twice whether the Board had any role in signing off any of the exit packages and she was told no.

She moved to defend Ms Martin and said she did not dismiss the RTÉ Board Chair on television and she had committed to doing an interview on PrimeTime and “outlined the facts” as they transpired this week.

Ms McEntee said it is “difficult” because everyone wants to have confidence in the national broadcaster and those managing it. She said the latest resignation will add to the challenge RTÉ is facing.

“I think the difficulty here is that all of us want to have confidence in RTÉ, we want to have confidence in those who are managing it and we want to move forward,” she added.

“The general public wants to be able to move forward and have a plan in place that people have confidence in and unfortunately when we continue to have information coming out in the way that it is on a number of different issues, it's very difficult for people to have confidence,” she said.

When asked whether information should be made in public such as a note from the engagement between the department and the RTÉ chair on October 10, Ms McEntee said absolutely any note should be made public.

Ms McEntee also said she doesn’t know whether Director General Kevin Bakhurst was in subsequent meetings with Ms Martin and Ms Ní Raghallaigh where the minister questioned whether the board had a role in any of the exit packages. Ms Martin claimed on PrimeTime last night that she had been misinformed by Ms Ní Raghallaigh.

“People want transparency, people want to know that we can have confidence in the people who are in the room, who are making these decisions, who are then communicating what the facts are,” Ms McEntee said.

“RTÉ cannot move forward until all of this information is made available and until there is absolute transparency. While this type of  information is coming out in the way that it is, that's simply not possible,” she added.

Meanwhile, Minister Simon Harris has called on senior management in RTÉ to "get out a calculator" to provide details of exit payments "today".

Defending Ms Martin, he said he is "sick" of talking about the ongoing controversies in RTÉ.

Mr Harris said RTÉ's senior management should resolve some of the issues plaguing the broadcaster "today" by providing information on exit payments.

"The RTÉ carousel, this constant saga needs to end, I am so sick and tired of coming into studios like this where all we do in RTÉ is talk about or RTÉ.

"RTÉ has a legal obligation to provide details in relation to the aggregate amount of exit payments. They don't need to wait till Monday, they don't need to wait till Tuesday - get out a calculator out of the figures and before the 6.1 news produce them," he said.

Mr Harris told RTÉ's Claire Byrne show: "This RTÉ carousel is beginning to actually distort media and political discourse in this country, it's pushing other items down the news agenda. This is an organisation that I value, it's a public service broadcaster, it's actually doing damage to its own ability to actually report news stories."