The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has welcomed the decision by the new director general of RTÉ to “stand down” the broadcaster's executive board.
“A new brush sweeps clean,” Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley told Newstalk radio.
Mr Stanley said he had been calling for some time for the board to step aside and following the resignation of Rory Coveney “this was inevitable.”
It was clear that the executive team had been “kept in the dark” about the deals being made, but in some ways the board had been “lax”, said Mr Stanley.
The “standing down” of the executive was necessary and it was a sign of “decisive action” by Mr Bakhurst. It was clear that there had been “no proper relationship” between the board and the management team and that was not acceptable.
“It's clear that the oversight board was kept in the dark. It's clear that they weren't being given full information and properly informed. And what we need to see now is, is we need to see these actions followed through. And I think the register of interests is very important. And it's good to see that being put in place.”
Mr Stanley said there was now “a lot of weight” on Kevin Bakhurst’s shoulders and his statement on Monday morning was a good start. There were signs that the oversight board had been “lax in some ways” or “lacklustre” in the attention paid to the issue of remuneration to some staff.
Having served on a number of boards, Mr Stanley said he knew that managers had a way of “keeping things from their boards”.
The oversight board had to have trust in the management team and it was clear that in RTÉ that had not been the case for “a considerable period of time.”
'Corporate and financial mess'
“There's huge work to be done here. Make no mistake about it. What we have seen over the last two and a half weeks is an absolute corporate and financial mess that I've never seen anything like it before.”
Confidence had to be restored in RTÉ, when that was done people would then pay their licence fee, he added. However, there also needed to be reform of the TV licence system.
“I think when people see that change is coming and change is coming very quickly over the next couple of months, that's the process that has to happen.”
Meanwhile, the chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee, Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth, said the new director general was demonstrating a willingness to be answerable to both the public and staff at RTÉ.
That was very welcome, Ms Smyth told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland. A radical plan was also needed and he had laid out the key steps of how he intends to do that, most of which were terms that the Media Committee had been trying to establish.
“We wish him the very best of luck, him and his new team that he puts in place,” she said.
'Dossier of documents'
When asked if the members of the committee had yet received the documentation they had been promised in a legal letter from representatives of Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly, Ms Smyth said not yet. It was “fascinating” and “unusual” to receive a letter promising “a dossier of documents” which she hoped they would receive as early as possible so they could be scrutinised.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions about who made the decision to seek the payments and why, and we really haven't got any clarity around that. But there'll be bigger questions too that lingered in relation to the commercial deal with Renault.”
She said the key question will be how such an arrangement came about – did Noel Kelly ask RTÉ to underwrite the agreement and did Ryan Tubridy sanction it?
“We need to know who made the proposal. We can only assume it came from Kelly management, but more importantly, who agreed to it in RTÉ? As we know, there was significant pushback from the executives up to the point of gridlock. But something certainly changed in between, which arguably has cost RTÉ dearly in terms of reputational damage.”
The other key question for Ryan Tubridy would about his “moral compass” knowing that the figures being disclosed to the public were not accurate. She said it would be better if he were to come in and be “open and transparent with the committee” instead of the committee having to “drag information”.
Ms Smyth said as chair of the committee she wanted to ensure that both sides get fairness, that there is respect with a measured and considered approach to questioning.
“I will try to maintain that level of dignity at the hearing tomorrow, I realise there's huge interest in this.”
Ms Smyth said she understood the public’s interest in the issue, and as TV licence payers they had a stake.
