RTÉ management found wanting at every step, says Fianna Fáil senator

Vivienne Clarke

Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley has said that RTÉ management “have been found wanting at every step of the process” since details were revealed about the Ryan Tubridy pay deal.

The “opaqueness” of details from Wednesday’s Media Committee was disappointing, he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

“It's not believable. it's not going to be enough to give confidence to the Government who on behalf of the licensed parent will have a responsibility to address this issue.”

"Somebody needed to stand up and say what exactly the financial and contractual arrangements were. It was uncertain whether the people before the committee were “either really deceitful or they're disingenuous in the extreme.”

When asked what he thought the case was, Senator Dooley replied “I think it’s just incompetence. I think there's somewhere in between.

“I think that the management structure amongst a certain number of individuals within that management board are operating in some kind of a gray shadow area that doesn't have the kind of corporate governance that one would expect of an organization that is so dependent on the loyalty and the goodwill of the license payers and of the people who are supposed to hold it to account.”

The staff at RTÉ had done amazing work in holding management to account in recent days. That was the right thing to do and was an important fundamental part of a functioning democracy, he said.

The opaqueness of the responses at the committee meeting indicated the level of dysfunction and an inability to follow actual processes and procedures.

Senator Dooley said that a number of people at “the very top of the authority” would have to consider their positions especially if the station was to regain public trust. That was going to require “a significant change in direction by elements of the board.”