Irish Examiner view: Restoring trust in RTÉ

'Employees being asked to accept organisational change, uncertainty, and a smaller workforce will examine how the rules operate for those recruited into prominent positions. Trust cannot flourish where management asks staff to take fairness on faith.' File picture: Liam McBurney/PA

RTÉ cannot rebuild public trust by insisting that the public has misunderstood its explanations.

After the scandals of 2023, the broadcaster promised a different culture: Greater openness, clearer accountability, and an end to arrangements whose workings became apparent only when somebody asked awkward questions. This week’s Oireachtas hearing offered an uncomfortable reminder of how much remains to be done.

The hiring of Ger Gilroy to present the Howler Sport podcast has become the latest test of those promises. Concerned about the recruitment process, the National Union of Journalists has sought a meeting to discuss it.

The issue is neither Gilroy’s broadcasting ability nor RTÉ’s entitlement to recruit experienced people. A public service broadcaster needs talent and must be able to compete for it. But competition for talent does not relieve management of its obligation to explain how appointments are made and what public money buys.

RTÉ says Gilroy was assessed against the same weighted criteria as other candidates, although he did not submit an expression of interest himself. Its explanation is that the expressions of interest process allowed management to identify additional candidates.

That distinction may satisfy those who designed the procedure, but management should understand why it has failed to reassure those watching it unfold. Twenty internal applicants expressed interest in the role. They, and their colleagues, deserve to understand how a process advertised to staff accommodates someone who did not apply, and how the competing candidates were assessed. Fairness must be demonstrable to the people expected to accept the outcome.

The financial questions are legitimate. RTÉ director-general Kevin Bakhurst has indicated that Gilroy will feature among RTÉ’s 20 highest earners, yet the committee was not given his salary. Telling the public that remuneration reflects strategic importance and market considerations is an explanation so broad that it explains almost nothing.

What is the role worth? Who decided? Against what benchmark? What outcomes will establish whether the investment represents value? These are ordinary questions for an organisation sustained by compulsory licence fees and substantial public funding. Answering them should be routine.

There is an internal cost to opacity too. Employees being asked to accept organisational change, uncertainty, and a smaller workforce will examine how the rules operate for those recruited into prominent positions. Trust cannot flourish where management asks staff to take fairness on faith.

None of this requires turning Gilroy into a scapegoat. He did not write RTÉ’s governance commitments. The responsibility for honouring them belongs to the executives who did.

Nor should legitimate criticism become an excuse to weaken public service broadcasting. Ireland needs an independent, adequately funded RTÉ; that need makes competent, transparent management more urgent. The broadcaster rightly demands answers from the institutions it scrutinises. It should recognise the same obligation when the questions concern its own decisions. Reform cannot be measured solely in policies published, committees established, or assurances repeated. Its test is whether the next difficult question receives a straightforward answer.