Still up in the air whether Ryan Tubridy will return to the air, says RTÉ chair

Vivienne Clarke

The chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh has said that any decision about a return to air of Ryan Tubridy was a matter for the director general Kevin Bakhurst.

The “very lengthy and technical report” by Grant Thornton pointed to governance failures within RTÉ along with deficiencies in internal management controls and failure, she told RTÉ radio’s News at One.

Ms Ní Raghallaigh said she hoped to see a gradual change in culture, openness and transparency in RTÉ.

When asked if the report vindicated Ryan Tubridy and could lead to his return to the airwaves, she said that was a matter for the director general. “At the end of the day, that's ultimately his decision.”

On the issue of the licence fee and the sharp fall in income, Ms Ní Raghallaigh called for the recommendations of the Future Media Commission to be implemented. The licence fee model was a broken model.

“As a democracy, we value public service media and the importance of having a stable public service media. And the sooner we get back to that discussion, I think the better.”

Meanwhile, Seamus Dooley, Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists described the Grant Thornton report into RTÉ as “an arrow through the heart” of the relationship between staff and management.

“It confirms my worst suspicions,” he told RTÉ radio’s News at One.

“Trust is fundamental to the relationship between the public service broadcaster and its audience, but also the foundation of a relationship between an employer and its workers. And this was a deliberate attempt to conceal the truth.”

Mr Dooley noted that Ryan Tubridy and his agent had objected to attempts to conceal some payments to him in 2020. “So there was a conspiracy here.”

While the report was predictable in some respects, it was “absolutely devastating” and staff at the station were in a “state of intense anger.”

It was now obvious that there had been a deliberate attempt to suppress salaries, he said, “so that it would appear that some people were earning less than they actually were, so that other people would take cuts." Trust had been broken, and it would be very difficult to restore, he warned.

Mr Dooley welcomed the statement by the Chair of the Board of RTÉ. “I think that the chair this morning has made a good start. I think the director general has made a good start. But this will not be easy.

"If you fool me once, you know, it's bad enough. But we just really feel betrayed. And I couldn't overstate the level of anger in this organisation today.”