Letters to the Editor: Now turn the spotlight on politicians’ oversight of spending
Readers contrast the scrutiny on Ryan Tubridy's payments with the delays and budget overruns in the development of the national children's hospital. Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins
I would like to offer some personal views/comments/opinions on the ongoing RTÉ saga.
First of all let me state while working with an international organisation I served as contracts officer for eight years. Later, I served as chief of purchasing, and later still as head of civilian administration. I have served as secretary and later chairperson of finance committees which reviewed expenditures of over $5,000 (€4,500) at that time.
I would like to clarify I am not a fan of Ryan Tubridy. I have never watched his presentation of The Late Late Show. Nor have I listened to any of his radio broadcasts.
Ryan Tubridy is an independent contractor and as such, in my opinion, he or his agent have the right to negotiate in his best financial interests.
In my opinion, Ryan Tubridy has no responsibility — moral, ethical, or legal — to make his income public. Nor, in my opinion, has he any responsibility to comment on statements attributed to RTÉ regarding his income.
It is the duty of RTÉ staff to negotiate in the best interests of the service and the tax payer.
The executive board of RTÉ, now stood down, has come in for some criticism. However I have not heard anyone ask for copies of job descriptions of the executive. That would include any directives and or advice offered by the director general.
Normally procedures are in place whereby contracts are negotiated. Approval for final agreement should/must be sought, as must independent confirmation that the terms of the contract have been met and/or services rendered satisfactorily.
Then independent certification of invoices and approval — additional layers of control — before invoices submitted for payment. Normally two bank signatures required who will review complete file to ensure compliance prior to signing cheque or approving bank transfer.
The matter of oversight by the relevant government minister and or senior civil servants seems to have avoided comment.
If responsibility is to be apportioned then one must look at all levels and alleged failures.
Members of Oireachtas committees have been critical of many procedures in place relating to expenditure. I would suggest the record of elected representatives in monitoring expenditure of taxpayers’ funds is, to say the least, questionable. Various government departments have been criticised over the years for failure to comply with established procedures. Far too many instances to mention.
We may recall the purchase of a photocopier some time ago for the Houses of Oireachtas, which was too big for the space intended. Or the ongoing saga of the national children’s hospital and spiralling costs.
In relation to RTÉ executives travelling to or attending events at public expense, elected representative are regularly invited with spouse/partner attend events.
I cannot finish without mentioning the now annual St Patrick’s Day junket involving elected representatives, civil servants, support staff and spouses/partners — many travelling business class at taxpayers’ expense.
I have lived and worked in 22 countries. In addition I had short- term assignments in 48 countries. Not one of those countries ever sent a representative abroad for national day celebrations.
Many would say this matter is now being used by the Government to deflect from the many ongoing serious problems facing this country such as the HSE (failure to provide required services in timely manner), homelessness, and services to children with special needs, to mention but a few.
To the members of the various committees I say people in glass houses should not throw stones.
Government ministers must be delighted. It’s all about RTÉ and Ryan Tubridy, and there is not a word about the terrible problems the people of Ireland are experiencing.
Some, myself included, would say that, after two weeks, enough is enough. Instead, the ministers should be trying to solve the following:
- Germany is now 34% less expensive than Ireland, and this little country is now the sixth dearest in the world;
- The absolutely scandalous cost of the national children’s hospital continues to escalate;
- Rents are still out of control;
- Hospital waiting lists are at record levels, with the result that hundreds and probably thousands of our loved ones have died without treatment. This horrible national scandal requires immediate action.
Politicians are also to blame for our dreadful housing crisis.
Thousands of houses were built in Ireland during the 1950s, at a time when money was very scarce in the country. I recently came across a newspaper, The Post, which reported on the official opening of hundreds of houses in Kilkenny in February 1950. These houses were built by the Corporation in conjunction with a local builder.
“The evil that men do lives after them, the good is often interred with their bones” is a line from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
As someone who has never listened to Ryan Tubridy’s radio programme and only occasionally watched The Late Late Show, I would like to say the following.
I believe Ryan has done huge work for charities and I would imagine is someone who would go above and beyond his duties to help in any and many situations. He delivered hugely for RTÉ over many years and especially during covid.
Furthermore he has made an apology. It’s time to stop the witch-hunt against a fundamentally decent person. There is no embezzlement or fraud involved.
The outrage is over the top. Our culture is too swift to rush to judgement before all the facts are on the table. Alarmingly, it appears some of the RTÉ executives flip-flopping in and out to the PAC appear to have been asleep at the wheel.
I’m not suggesting that Ryan made a mistake. However, the breakdown of corporate governance and lack of transparency and trust lies firmly in the hands of RTÉ.
Facts and opinions are best kept apart.
Interesting to note that Noel Kelly, the supposed ace media talent agent, was so deferential to all of RTÉ’s guidance requests as to how his various invoices were headed, labelled, and directed. Considering also the flimsy omissions from the supposed three-year contract (ie, identifying only a one-year deal and left unsigned by the opposite party, thus voiding the legality of same), one is bewildered at the degree of obeisance unbecoming for such a contract agent. One has to wonder if such operational oversights qualify for some formal forensic accounting review and the like.
It was, however, a canny strategy and slick tactical ploy to present as a doughty double act, who were able to interplay/interject throughout the session ensuring time lost via regular repetitious commentary. Of course the coup de grace was in delaying their submission until the last minute... well actually, the last seven minutes. That copper-fastened the Oireachtas committee’s disadvantage from the off.
While it was a bombastic and periphrastic performance, it essentially did the opposite of what was intended. It did their defensive arguments down. All this to say nothing of the very practised obfuscation the duo employed by constantly requesting questions to be repeated, with themselves repeating their mantras angled against the RTÉ executive, and hamming up the indignance to an inordinate degree.
Professional avoidance par excellence or what?
I have a confession to make: For the past 50 years, my wife has given me access to the family car. Only on an ad-hoc basis. Mind you I suppose I did benefit in kind.
There is nothing worse than people moralising, worse still politicians
of all people, like they are doing with Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly at the Oireachtas committee sessions.
Ask the public who they would trust or believe, Ryan or politicians, and we all know what the answer would be.
Ian Mallon is right [Irish Examiner, July 10]. I pity Niamh Smyth for the awful job she has to do at the media committee, to try to rein in some of the grandstanding of some of its members.
The silly, aimless, and misdirected questions and the rants serve no good purpose and only result in showing up the politicians concerned for the empty vessels they are. I hope their constituents will realise at the next election what sort of representation they get in the national parliament.
If they do, then these hearings will have served one good purpose at least.
The scandals in RTÉ have exposed massive levels of pay for certain people and the misuse of their privileged positions to access free goods and services and money from businesses and the private sector, most of them luxury goods and services. These people were paid on the double, treble, and quadruple for their privileged positions by taxpayers and licence holders and the business sector.
How much did RTÉ presenters and employees and their agents get from Renault and other car dealers, how much did they get from other corporations? The taxpayers and licence holders pay for RTÉ and subsidise these privileged RTÉ people who manipulate their privileged positions to massively increase their wealth and earnings.
The fact that RTÉ has such a vast reach all over Ireland enables these privileged few to use this to enrich themselves. This is vast private enrichment at public expense and public impoverishment.
The struggling families of Ireland who are suffering a cost-of-living crisis, who are the taxpayers and licence holders were and still are forced to pay for this activity in RTÉ.
The Oireachtas inquiries and tribunals will achieve nothing as RTÉ will continue in operation and no lessons will be learnt, and the same system will remain place.
Over time, new self-enrichment schemes will be developed to exploit RTÉ’s state monopoly and dominant position in broadcasting in Ireland. There was and is no governance in
RTÉ, and no governance is possible, and no accountability is possible. There is only a lining of pockets and a sweeping of wrong doing under the carpet.
There is only one solution and that is the closure and abolition of RTÉ as it has failed in its legal duties to:
- Provide honest and accurate reporting of its income and expenditure and the income of its presenters and employees including funding from outside sources and any conflicts of interest involved. It was and is unaccountable;
- Provide honest, impartial, independent, un-censored and factual news to the Irish public. No censorship or state interference by the state and/or by globalist corporations and bodies.
RTÉ through abuse of its dominant position has breached its own law, the broadcasting laws, the advertising laws and financial reporting laws and conflict of interest laws. RTÉ is not fit for purpose and should be closed down.
This closure of RTÉ should be followed by the sell-off of RTÉ’s broadcasting assets to many new private and independent news stations which would provide honest, impartial, independent, uncensored and factual news to the Irish public. This would be free of state interference and censorship. No more RTÉ licence fees and vast waste of taxpayers money. The BAI could act as a referee and regulator ensuring that no concentrations of power occurs in the press and media sector and no monopolies or oligopolies develop, and ensure a wide diversity
of views are aired on the press and media.
This would restore and protect the constitutional rights and human rights of the people of Ireland.
Commentators dismissing these scandals as small fry on the global scale are entirely missing the point: the media, especially RTÉ, has assumed
the former role of the Church in claiming to be our national conscience, preaching to us what are the ‘correct’ views to hold, the ‘correct’ type of society we ought to be; to the point of implying itself in a position to pass judgment on the former arbiters of morality.
When an organisation sets itself up in this manner it is inevitable we take a special interest when we find its own house is not in order or we have been played like a harp.
Therefore there are only two honest options for RTÉ: Either disband or else continue as an independent commercial entity to compete in an open market like any other (if it knows how, at this stage).
The State subsidy to this ageing dinosaur in the form of our licence fee must be stopped by the next Government if this one is incapable or unwilling to make the decision. When it was set up in the 1960s, a licence fee made some sense, as the entire population was only able to tune their TV or radio into RTÉ.
These days, hardly anyone under 30 pays much attention to it any more. Thanks to the internet we have so many sources of information available to us now we’re well aware of how agenda-driven RTÉ is as a media outlet and paying money to support it is adding insult to injury. If one wants to avail of a broadcasting service one can just pay a subscription to a company like Netflix. Let RTÉ go the same way.
Meanwhile, tone deaf to all this, Leo Varadkar sees only a golden opportunity to sneak in the broadcasting tax by stealth under the guise of ‘reform’.
One wonders what the Government’s interest in keeping RTÉ on life support can be, if the Government are not benefitting in some way from the arrangement?
The problems that have been exposed in the management of RTÉ are getting the attention they deserve. Misuse of publicly-funded broadcasting can have important implications for matters of democracy and justice in Ireland and globally.
Privately-owned and commercial media sources are also subject to similar abuses and may be far less amenable to the sort of accountability we are now seeing at RTÉ.
Mainstream media globally, including Irish media, are heavily influenced by US and western commercial media. RTÉ does some good investigative reporting on some national and international issues but has been falling short in several important areas.
Examples include its recent reporting on Israeli aggression in which RTÉ gave airtime to Israeli prime minister Netanyahu seeking to justify the military attack on Jenin refugee camp.
On July 10, Oliver Callan, standing in for Ryan Tubridy, gave an extended uncritical interview with Evan Thomas promoting his book Road to Surrender justifying the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
RTÉ news reporting on the European Union, Nato, and the war in Ukraine has arguably been unduly uncritical.
Public broadcasting should not become a government broadcasting service. The reorganised RTÉ must promote a more independent form of investigative journalism prioritising the most important national and international issues, as befits its role as part of the fourth estate.
When all the furore and embarrassment over the RTÉ payments and barter accounts subsides — as it will — the end result will not be good for the citizen.
Ivana Bacik of the Labour Party has echoed the call of her former colleague, Pat Rabbitte, for a broadcast tax on each and every residential and commercial property, as has the NUJ.
The Government seems to be leaning likewise.
The NUJ members in RTÉ are playing a blinder, pursuing their bosses as if their lives depend on it.
And when the fuss dies down, those who matter will point to this exemplar of investigative journalism and legislate for the household broadcast charge considered to be essential to fund the national broadcaster and remove its need to fumble in greasy tills.
Given the parlous financial status of RTÉ, it is difficult to imagine that the annual broadcast charge would be less than €300.
Sometimes, we should be very careful of what we wish for.
