Gary Gannon
Question:85. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to outline the extent of her knowledge regarding RTÉ’s secret payments to a host (details supplied). [32523/23]
View answerThursday, 13 July 2023
Questions (85)
Written answers
As I have previously set out, I became aware in late March, through communication from the Chair to my officials that an issue had arisen with regard to a transaction as part of the regular audit of the RTÉ 2022 annual accounts. At the time, the Chair had no insight into the detail or seriousness of the matter. In order to ascertain the facts, the Chair advised that the Audit and Risk Committee was commissioning an independent fact-finding report to examine the matter and report back to the Audit and Risk Committee. A time frame for completion was not notified by RTÉ at this point.
On 19 June, the Chair wrote to me to advise that the Board had received the Grant Thornton report and that the Board was continuing its consideration of the matter and would provide an update when it had decided on a course of action.
On the afternoon of Thursday, 22 June, shortly in advance of its issue, the Chair of the RTÉ Board provided me and my senior officials with a copy of the statement setting out details of the matter.
In addition to setting out details in relation to transactions relating to a presenter, the statement also set out that remuneration for the period 2017 to 2019 had been understated by €120,000. The statement confirmed that Grant Thornton were to commence a review into the reasons for the understatement in the period 2017 to 2019 and a review of the reported remuneration of the top 10 most highly paid on air presenters.
It is difficult to express the level of shock and disappointment we have all experienced since these matters came to light on 22 June. A trusted, robust and accountable public service broadcasting service is critical to the health of our democracy and society. Trust and confidence in RTÉ must be restored.
That is why my focus, from the outset, has been on ensuring accountability for issues that have and continue to be identified, as well as restoring the confidence of the public, the staff in RTÉ, the Oireachtas and Government in our largest public service broadcaster.
I am doing this through the commissioning of an independent review of governance and culture at RTÉ and an independent review of contractor fees, use of agents and other HR matter as well as the appointment of a forensic accountant, Mazars, to examine the use of barter accounts and any other off balance sheet accounts identified.
Question No. 86 answered with Question No. 80.