RTE’s director general Kevin Bakhurst said he had recused himself from an examination of a car loan arrangement involving sports reporter Marty Morrissey due to their friendship.
Morrissey apologised last week for taking part in an “informal” arrangement where he used a Renault car after emceeing a dozen events for the automotive brand over a five-year period.
He said he returned the car “voluntarily” on June 23 after reflecting on the controversy at RTE and concluding that the “ad hoc” arrangement was “an error of judgment”.
In a 2016 interview, Mr Bakhurst said that he and Morrissey had attended GAA matches, gone fishing, and attended the Willie Clancy music festival “a few times” together.
Mr Bakhurst told reporters on Monday that as he had recused himself, interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch would probe the matter and other potentially similar issues involving other staff.
“Everyone knows Marty is a good friend of mine,” he said.
“So I’m not involved. I’m deliberately not involved in that.
“I’ve asked Adrian Lynch to oversee not just Marty but a number of other cases that we’re trying to tidy up and get information on. So Adrian Lynch is running that process. And he needs to get all the information together and then decide what the outcome will be on that.
“I have deliberately not got involved in this process because I don’t think it’s appropriate because he’s a friend of mine.”
Mr Bakhurst also said he learned of Morrissey’s car loan arrangement in the last week, and that he had never asked his friend how he paid for his car.
He said that when Morrissey drove him to events across Ireland, it was not in a Renault car.
“I never asked him how much he paid for his car, surprisingly enough,” he said in response to a question from the media.
He added that he has friends “across RTE” and if there are issues around anyone else who he is friends with, he would “absolutely” recuse himself.
He said: “I think that’s the right thing to do.”
He said the register of interests that would be set up around these commercial arrangements would aim to improve transparency.
He added: “We’re not going to prohibit people from doing everything, but there just has to be – for our licence fee payers – everyone else has to create transparency around it.”
When asked about what his view would be on journalists who have breached guidelines, which require RTE staff to request permission for commercial arrangements or speaking events, Mr Bakhurst said: “I think news and current affairs are pretty robust in how they apply the guidelines.
“But I will take a pretty dim view of people who have breached those guidelines, particularly if they’ve done it consistently.”
When asked why RTE radio presenter Ryan Tubridy was taken off air after it was revealed that his fees had been incorrectly declared, while Morrissey continued to commentate on the All-Ireland hurling semi-finals at the weekend, Mr Bakhurst said the two situations were different.
He added: “The difference between those two is that there was no licence payers’ money lost in the case of Marty Morrissey.”
