WATCH: Rally held outside RTÉ's Cork office 'in solidarity with the public and with staff'
Staff of RTÉ Cork and members of SIPTU and the NUJ took part in a lunchtime rally in support of public-service broadcasting today. Picture: Larry Cummins
Staff of RTÉ Cork and members of SIPTU and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) took part in a lunchtime rally today in support of public service broadcasting.
Speaking outside RTÉ’s office in Cork, producer/director at RTÉ and NUJ member, Deirdre Ni Mhairtin, said the rally was being held to “keep the pressure on” RTÉ management.
“RTÉ Cork are out here again today in solidarity with the public and also with the rest of RTÉ staff.
“We’re as disgruntled as everybody else. We want to see change.
“We’re hearing some good things coming out but we’re here to keep the pressure on to make sure that those changes are made," she said.
RTÉ has been mired in controversy since it emerged last month that it under-reported fees paid to Ryan Tubridy and failed to correctly disclose €345,000 of payments to him between 2017 and 2022.
The furore has since widened amid further disclosures about RTÉ’s internal financial, accounting and governance practices and its expenditure on corporate hospitality for advertising clients.
Mr Tubridy has offered to pay back two payments at the centre of the fiasco the broadcaster has been embroiled in, as he laid bare the toll it had taken on him personally.
The former Late Late Show presenter said that he was due to make six more appearances for commercial sponsor Renault as part of a contentious deal at the centre of the crisis that has engulfed RTÉ.
But he added that “if that work is not called upon to be done, of course, the money goes back”.
Mr Tubridy was speaking during appearances at Oireachtas committee meetings yesterday.
Speaking yesterday he said it was “touch and go” whether he would be allowed to return to his weekly radio programme.
He said that he wants to return to RTÉ Radio as soon as possible “because it’s all I’ve got”.
“If I do go back to RTÉ, which I hope to, it’ll be a whole new world order,” Mr Tubridy said in his closing remarks.
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