Is Kenny’s departure from RTÉ an own goal?

Pat Kenny’s departure from RTÉ raises interesting questions as to how the State-owned broadcaster is allowed continue to break the Public Procurement Guidelines and not tender this and other obviously lucrative contracts.

RTÉ’s top presenters always defended receiving high payments on the basis they were not employees but service providers on short-term service contracts, and therefore RTÉ is not covered by the employment exclusion in the procurement guidelines.

The Montrose bosses may believe they have the best people in the business within their own campus.

However, if they adhered to the procurement rules and regularly tendered out these positions, they might not be in the financial circumstances they find themselves in today. Their audiences might also enjoy looking at some

fresh, raw talent. Perhaps this director general is going to stop presenters having their cake and eating it.

He might also stop another RTÉ own-goal practice of the same service contractors calling the programmes they present after themselves — if The Late Late Show had been called The Gay Byrne Show the director general would have had an even larger headache to deal with.

Ironically, Mr Kenny often described himself as the broadcasting equivalent of a premiership footballer — time will only tell if his latest move is an own-goal for him and his still highly-paid colleagues he has left behind.

Nick Crawford

Newcastle

Co Dublin