New RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst will face his first Oireachtas grilling this Thursday morning as TDs quiz him on how he will turn the beleaguered broadcaster around.
Former Director General Noel Curran will also attend the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to face questions on the broadcaster’s finances. He will not, however, be at the Leinster House complex and will join the meeting virtually.
It comes two days after Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly accused RTÉ of not being fully truthful about the payment scandal.
The former Late Late Show host has been in the spotlight for the last three weeks after RTÉ announced that it had undeclared his earnings by €345,000 over a five-year period. They also agreed to underwrite a Renault agreement that saw them forced to pay out €150,000 to Mr Tubridy.
Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly have maintained that the star was not “overpaid” and the broadcaster misquoted his earnings.
They also dismissed suggestions from former Chief Financial Officer Breda O’Keeffe that RTÉ had not agreed to underwrite the agreement. However, an email released by Mr Kelly to TDs from February 2020 showed Ms O’Keeffe stating that “we can provide you with a side letter to underwrite this fee for the duration of the contract”.
In an email to the PAC, sent on Monday, Ms O’Keeffe declined an invitation to attend today’s meeting.
She said that she had “nothing further to add”. She noted that she had to take time off work for the first meeting and that participation in the Grant Thornton report is “taking time and impacting with my other commitments”.
It will be Mr Bakhurst’s first appearance at an Oireachtas Committee meeting since taking over as RTÉ DG on Monday.
The new boss, who has rejoined the national broadcaster after a stint at Ofcom, is expected to be grilled by TDs about Tubridy’s future after the star said several times on Tuesday that he could be “out of a job by Friday” and that his prospects were “touch and go”.
He will also be quizzed on his plans to overhaul culture.
He will be accompanied by Conor Mullen, Commercial Director, Sales and Strategy, Declan McBennett, Group Head of Sport, Adrian Lynch, Deputy Director General, Paula Mullooly, Director of Legal Affairs, Richard Collins, Director of Finance, and Robert Shortt, who will serve as a Staff Representative.
Siún NÍ Raghallaigh, Chairperson of the RTÉ Board, will also be back in the committee room for the third time in two weeks.
RTÉ provided a rake of documentation to PAC earlier this week, but it was largely overshadowed by the disclosures from Mr Tubridy.
The folder contained information regarding the barter account, pension top-ups, car allowances and the controversial Toy Show the Musical.
It revealed that 61 people were in receipt of car allowances last year, ranging between €1,045 and €25,000.
