All members of RTE executive board should appear before committees, unions say

Unions have called on former RTE director general Dee Forbes and all members of the executive board to appear before committees this week over undeclared payments made to Ryan Tubridy.

At a meeting of the RTE Trade Union Group (TUG) at lunchtime on Monday, a motion was adopted after the anger and shock of RTE staff was outlined.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is also to hold a protest outside the broadcaster’s Donnybrook headquarters at 1pm on Tuesday in response to requests from members.

RTE staff have called on members of the executive board to “fully cooperate” with parliamentary committees and asked that Ms Forbes would attend, despite tendering her resignation earlier on Monday.

“The TUG calls for all current members of the RTE executive board to fully cooperate with the Oireachtas sub-committees on Media and Public Accounts,” the motion unanimously adopted by staff read.

“The TUG also calls on former director general Dee Forbes to attend, noting her statement setting out her role in the payment arrangements and mindful of her direct involvement in pursuing cost-reduction policies affecting staff.”

The motion also called on RTE to publish all remuneration packages of the executive board, and for an examination to be launched into how RTE uses third-party agencies and contracts.

The TUG is also to request a meeting with media minister Catherine Martin to discuss the external review ordered by the government, as well as meetings with the acting director general Adrian Lynch and with the chair of the RTE board Siun Ni Raghallaigh.

The NUJ has called on executives with knowledge of the “bizarre” payment arrangements to appear before the Media committee and Public Accounts committee this Wednesday and Thursday.

It comes as staff across RTE expressed an “unprecedented level of anger” at revelations that undeclared payments worth 345,000 euro were made to Mr Tubridy from 2017 onwards, and are expected to be watching the committees intently.

Brian Stanley TD, chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, said TDs and senators would have to accept the situation if there are serious medical issues.

In an interview on RTE radio, he said: “What I would expect is that, medically, if she is fit to attend on Thursday, I would expect her to come.”

RTE’s education correspondent Emma O’Kelly, who is chair of the NUJ’s Dublin broadcasting branch, said this is one of the most important weeks for the public service broadcaster.

When asked whether Ms Forbes should be among those before the committee, she said “I hope she does”.

“I noticed in her statement that she said she cares very deeply about RTE and I welcome that, and I’m glad to hear it,” she told RTE’s Today with Claire Byrne programme.

“However, in my experience, RTE has a habit of thinking that if you say something, it is true simply by virtue of the fact that you have said it.

“Anyone who cares very deeply about things or people knows that that is expressed in actions. So, I would like to see that expressed in action and the first way of expressing that is to agree to attend before committees.”

She added: “Anybody who had any knowledge of any of this needs to appear before the committee.

“Also, these numerous internal communications that she spoke of, RTE needs to publish those internal communications, it needs to do so ASAP, not wait until Wednesday or Thursday. Those should go up on the RTE website by close of business today.”

NUJ secretary Seamus Dooley told RTE Radio that executive board members who were involved in the deal should be the ones who appear before the committees, saying it would be “bizarre” if those with no knowledge of the payments were put up before it.

He said if deputy director general Adrian Lynch was unaware of the payments, it did not make sense for him to appear and take a “punishment beating from TDs angry about this” while others are absent.

Mr Dooley said the deal was “grubby in the extreme” and that a “fundamental rethink” of commercial dealings at RTE was needed.

Ms Kelly said that for years she had heard concerns from staff on zero-hour contracts, struggling to get resources and equipment repaired in RTE.

“There’s a culture in the organisation that people have been unhappy with for a very long time. Also the issues with transparency, there’s been a culture of secrecy in this organisation that I as a union rep have been aware of for so long and that absolutely needs to change,” she said.

“So morale, people are furious, they’re angry, this is a really important week for people – probably the most important week ever in RTE. People are watching very carefully, they’re waiting until Wednesday and Thursday to see what’s said but also they’re watching today, tomorrow.

“Nobody can wait for this (government-ordered) external review, seven months (away), that is out of the question.”