The Chair of the RTÉ Board has apologised for the "breach of trust" on Ryan Tubridy's undeclared earnings of €345,000, with Minister Catherine Martin ordering a full review of RTÉ governance.
Earlier this week, it emerged that extra hidden payments were given to the former Late Late host between 2017 and 2022, which saw Ryan Tubridy apologise 'unreservedly' saying that he should have spoken up when the incorrect earnings were published.
This Saturday, the Chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh met with the Minister for Tourism, Culture Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin TD, to discuss the transparency issue surrounding the payments.
Read More: RTE board told of Ryan Tubridy payments issue in same week he announced Late Late exit
They also intended to speak about planned steps to ensure "there is no recurrence of these matters."
Minister Martin said: "At the meeting, I reiterated to the Chair that what has transpired is shocking, and as evidenced by media coverage and public comment over the past number of days, it has caused untold damage to RTE’s reputation and to public service broadcasting more generally."
The Minister also pointed to "potential deeper challenges in the organisation."
She added: "Public trust in RTE must be rebuilt. Therefore, a Government decision on the future funding model for public service broadcasting has been paused until such time as this review is complete and the findings considered."
Following the meeting and the announcement by Minister Martin that an external review is to be established, Siún Ní Raghallaigh said, on behalf of the RTÉ Board that the priority is to ensure that public trust in corporate governance at RTÉ is restored.
"We take this responsibility very seriously. We will work closely with the forthcoming external review to ensure that these issues are rigorously examined, so that full confidence in Ireland’s independent, public service broadcaster can be rebuilt," she said.
"Separately, we have already put a number of immediate steps in place to ensure that there is no recurrence of these matters,* and we will also work to complete the second Grant Thornton report as quickly as possible," she added.
These steps, announced this Thursday include an internal review of contracts for the top 10 most highly paid on air presenters (now complete) and an external, independent review of the reported remuneration for the top 10 most highly paid on air presenters (soon to commence by Grant Thornton).
There will also be a republishing of the remunerations paid to Mr. Tubridy since 2017 in order to correct the record and pausing of all new material on air presenter contracts until the following processes are in place:
The Remuneration Committee of the Board will have full oversight and approval of the terms of contracts relating to the top 10 most highly paid on air presenters in value and any material variations or amendments to those contracts and the final step will be them bring in the Barter Account within the control of the Finance function, seeing that specific controls are put in place to the operation of that account by RTÉ.
"On behalf of the Board of RTÉ, I want to apologise again to the public for this breach of trust, and also to the staff of RTÉ who work so hard on a daily basis to serve the public," Ms Ní Raghallaigh said.
