RTÉ has confirmed director general Dee Forbes was suspended on Wednesday as controversy over undeclared payments to Ryan Tubridy deepens.
A statement from the RTÉ board read: "The RTÉ Board confirms that Dee Forbes, the Director General was suspended from her employment on Wednesday 21 June 2023.
"There are processes on-going and RTÉ must be mindful of its legal responsibilities and the rights of individuals.
"RTÉ will not be commenting further on this issue at this time."
Minister for Culture and Media Catherine Martin welcomed the announcement of the suspension for the "sake of transparency".
The National Union of Journalists called for a wide independent inquiry into RTÉ’s corporate governance.
Mr Tubridy has said he was surprised to learn of errors by RTÉ regarding his remuneration and issues surrounding separate payments made to him under a commercial deal.
The presenter received €150,000 from RTÉ in 2022 in addition to his reported annual remuneration.
The matter was the subject of an independent review carried out by Grant Thornton after the issue was raised in March, the findings of which have since been received by RTÉ's board and the audit and risk committee.
Mr Tubridy did not host his radio show on Friday morning, with comedian Oliver Callan stepping in.
In mid-March, Mr Tubridy announced he was quitting as host of the flagship Late Late Show after 14 years. Comedian Paddy Kielty has since been appointed as his replacement.
Crisis talks
Ms Martin is due to hold talks with RTÉ board chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh on Monday to discuss the crisis rocking the broadcaster.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Ms Martin said: “I want to know what actions are going to be taken, what processes will be put in place to make sure that this never happens again.
“I do believe it raises concerns in relation to the broader transparency and governance of this organisation.
“Public service broadcasting is so important to society, to democracy, and there is no doubt that damage has been done here.
“Trust has been damaged with the public, but I would say there is a lot of damage has been done to the staff, and that is something the board needs to work on, rebuilding the trust.”
Regarding the suspension of Ms Forbes, the Minister added: “I think for the sake of transparency it is good that announcement has been made, that clarity is given that that suspension has taken place.”
Ms Martin said she became aware in March that an issue had been discovered in the RTÉ audit, but only became aware that it involved Mr Tubridy on Wednesday.
She said: “What I was told in March was that an issue had arisen in the routine annual audit and that the need to do a fact-finding review to establish the actual facts around this.
“That is all I knew in March.”
Payments timeline
In a statement issued on Thursday afternoon, RTÉ confirmed the payments which prompted the investigation were separate from Mr Tubridy's annual remunerations, and were instead part of a deal in which the State broadcaster guaranteed the presenter an additional annual income of €75,000, "which was intended to come from a commercial partner".
RTÉ said Mr Tubridy received the first of these €75,000 payments from a commercial partner in July 2020, "in exchange for a number of personal appearances a year", with the broadcaster in turn issuing the commercial partner with a credit note, reducing the firm's sponsorship bill.
However, the commercial partner subsequently chose not to renew the deal, so, having guaranteed and unwritten the agreement, RTÉ said it instead made the payments directly to Mr Tubridy, via his agent.
RTÉ said it made two of these €75,000 payments, totalling €150,000, in respect of 2021 and 2022. Both of these payments were paid to Mr Tubridy in 2022, the broadcaster added.
The statement noted the two payments were included in RTÉ's barter account in 2022 for €115,380 each (€230,760 total), inclusive of fees incurred during the process.
On receiving Grant Thornton's findings, RTÉ launched its own review into Mr Tubridy's remunerations, finding the amounts were understated by €120,000 over the three-year period spanning 2017-2019.
"The circumstances that led to this understatement by RTÉ are currently under examination," the statement added.
In light of these findings, RTÉ confirmed Mr Tubridy's annual remuneration was €545,000 in 2019 and €515,000 in 2021.
The chairperson of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley had called for Ms Forbes to come back before the committee to explain the payments to Mr Tubridy.
Mr Stanley was speaking on Newstalk Breakfast and on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland when he said the national broadcaster had been involved in "dodgy accountancy practices".
Union meetings
NUJ members at RTE organised an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the controversy.
Irish secretary of the NUJ Seamus Dooley called for a broad investigation into corporate governance issues at RTÉ.
He said there is “great anger” among RTÉ members and added that an investigation into industrial relations processes within RTÉ was also needed.
Mr Dooley said the union was seeking an apology from management to staff as well as a meeting with the trade union group.
NUJ Dublin Broadcasting chairwoman Emma O Kelly said RTÉ staff wanted a wider independent inquiry into a “culture of secrecy” at the broadcaster.
“People spoke of how devastated they were, how ashamed they were, and how betrayed they felt.”
Employees who are members of Siptu were also in attendance.
“We have young, talented journalists leaving this organisation and yet in the midst of all this we have these secret payments – so there’s huge anger.”
Ms O Kelly, who is RTÉ’s education correspondent, added: “We have huge concerns around the use of the third-party contracts, this is something we have raised with RTÉ before.”
