RTÉ used controversial barter account to spend €275,000 on rugby tickets, travel and Champions League Final

In 2019, €111,000 was spent for travel and hotels to bring clients to Rugby World Cup; 10 year IRFU tickets costing €138,000; Champions League final in 2019, costing €26,000.

The expenditure was described as RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh as ‘outrageous’.

“Expenditure like that should go through the procurement system. I do believe that’s now been put in place,” she said.

It comes as Chief financial officer Richard Collins said “there is not fraud involved here” after referencing legal advice they had received in relation to the barter account payments to Ryan Tubridy.

“My own opinion is, maybe the taxpayer was defrauded,” he said.

Meanwhile, interim director general of RTÉ Adrian Lynch has admitted it is “possible” a looming controversy around €75,000 payments influenced Mr Tubridy’s decision to step down from the Late Late Show.

SF TD John Brady asked if the uncovering of these payments could have “well influenced” Mr Tubridy’s decision to step down from the Late Late Show.

Mr Lynch said this is “possible”.

Mr Brady referenced how Mr Lynch said yesterday that Mr Tubridy could have not known what was going on in the background when he made his announcement to step down.

“I was trying to work out the day the Director of Content had told me that Ryan Tubridy had come into his office to tell him that he was stepping down,” Mr Lynch said.

Mr Lynch said he had sent with a list of potential presenters to the director of content on March 13.

“So in my mind, I didn’t realise the CFO had contact from the auditors,” he said.

“Ryan Tubridy could well have been informed by somebody that this process or these concerns had been raised?” asked Mr Brady.

“Based on the information from yesterday, it’s possible,” said Mr Lynch.

“So it would be reasonable to say that this process, the uncovering of these payments, could well have influenced Ryan Tubridy’s decision to step down from his role as presenter of the Late Late Show,” asked Mr Brady.

“It’s possible if you look at the information,” said Mr Lynch.

Last week Mr Tubridy denied that his decision to step down from the Late Late Show had anything to do with the scandal.

Meanwhile, incoming director general of RTÉ Kevin Bakhurst will “reconstitute” the Executive Board of RTÉ, Mr Lynch has said.

In a statement to the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Lynch said said the Executive Board “failed in its responsibility to act as a collective and failed to ensure good governance” in relation to the Ryan Tubridy payments.

Adrian Lynch, interim DG

Mr Lynch said the Board has “deep regret regarding what has emerged in recent days. For this serious breach of trust with the public, we apologise.”

“I have spoken to Kevin Bakhurst last night. I understand that his first task will be a reconstitution of the Executive Board of RTE,” Mr Lynch said in his opening statement, a written copy of which was submitted shortly before the meeting was due to kick off.

“It is a fact that the application of governance procedures at executive board level allowed for the partial and incomplete sharing of information, so that individual members of the executive either did not have access to information, or had information withheld from them,” Mr Lynch said.

“It is true that the Executive Board failed in its responsibility to act as a collective, and failed to ensure good governance in this matter. Collectively, owing to the siloed style of procedures at Executive, and an overreliance on the prerogative asserted by the Director-General, we did not receive a comprehensive evaluation of Ryan Tubridy’s contract in full, including the way in which the payments were treated. We acknowledge and accept this failure by those members of the Executive who were aware of the contract.”

Mr Lynch added that he “had no knowledge that RTÉ had directly paid Ryan Tubridy”.

He said “from what I can see” a commercial decision was made on May 7 2020.

He said the DG gave an “undertaking” to NK management “that RTÉ will pay the bill” if the commercial deal didn’t work out.

Siún Ni Raghallaigh, chairperson

Chairperson Siún Ni Raghallaigh described the secret payments as an “act designed to deceive”.

“As a trained accountant and a former financial controller, I am appalled as to how payments were recorded and presented in the RTÉ accounts,” she said.

“What was the motivation here? It appears to me that this was an act designed to deceive.”

Ms NÍ Raghallaigh said she intends to publish RTÉ’s top 100 earners as soon as is practically possible.

She said the Director of Content would have had “some of the information” regarding Mr Tubridy’s payments, even though they are not at the committee.

Mr Lynch said he, as well as the Director of Content, the chief financial officer, somebody from the RTÉ Legal department and the DG “the people who would be aware” of Mr Tubridy’s contract.

He said there was a “further” agreement to “underwrite” the commercial agreement.

Richard Collins, chief financial officer

Chief financial officer Richard Collins said “there is not fraud involved here” after referencing legal advice they had received.

“My own opinion is, maybe the taxpayer was defrauded,” he said.

SF TD Imelda Munster asks CFO Richard Collins when exactly he found out about the €75,000 invoices after he said yesterday the issues were raised with him early March.

On March 7 Deloitte approached Mr Collins, he said.

“They raised the issue of the invoices there and asked me what they were for.”

He asked the DG.

Mr Collins said that Ms Forbes told him they were consultancy invoices relating to services provided during Covid by Noel Kelly Management.

“The services were in relation to how RTÉ structured its operations [during the pandemic],” he said.

“[Noel Kelly] was giving advice to how we dealt with sponsors,” he said.

“I got a high level response from the DG. Deloitte weren’t happy with the response”.

“I didn’t give the nod, I never gave the nod,” he said.

He said he was told it was for advice Noel Kelly had provided on how RTÉ “structured itself and presented itself during Covid”.

“[Ms Forbes] gave what appeared to be a plausible explanation,” he said.

Ms Munster said this was “ridiculous”.

Chair Brian Stanley asks Mr Collins if he was told the payments related to “agents”.

“If I said agents, I would correct that,” says CFO Richard Collins.

He said he was told they related to “consultancy services that Noel Kelly had provided during Covid”.

“Your explanation here is ridiculous,” said Deputy Stanley.

Mr Collins was also asked by FG TD Colm Burke if consultants are obliged to charge VAT for invoices.

He said “there is no VAT charged” for invoices for UK companies, as was the case here.

He said labelling the invoices as ‘consultancy fees’ is a “sparse description”.

He said in “hindsight” he should have asked questions.

“The barter account sat outside the normal system,” Mr Collins.

Mr Collins said Deloitte didn’t raise any other issues bar the ‘consultancy’ invoices, which we now know relate to the infamous €75,000 payments to Ryan Tubridy.

He said the barter company had a fee of 35pc to deal with the invoices.

“In hindsight, yes, I should have gone a step further in 2020 and should have shut [the barter account] down or brought it further under Finance control,” said Mr Collins.

“I’m not here to justify the barter account. I wasn’t happy with the barter account when I saw it first.”

In an extraordinary series of events, the CFO revealed he is paid base salary of €200,000 plus car allowance €25,000.

This came after pressure from enraged TDs and the Chair Brian Stanley after John Brady asked him his salary.

Mr Collins initially declined to say how much he is being paid, saying it is a “private matter”.

Chair Brian Stanley intervened, saying that Chair of the Board said top salaries will be published.

“I don’t know what my exact salary is off the top of my head,” Mr Collins said.

This was met with fury from TDs.

“I believe my salary is around €200,000 plus a car allowance of €25,000 but it’s in and around that,” Mr Collins said finally.

Meanwhile Geraldine O’Leary said neither she nor Renault were aware that RTÉ had underwritten the contract when questioned by Green TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh.

Anne O’Leary said Grant Thorton had “an awful lot of work to do” and it took them three months to carry out the first report.

“I thought the internal audit procedure had really improved things,” she says when asked about the changes she has seen in her time in RTÉ.

She said the €75,000 payments were “completely” a shock to her.

Dee Forbes resignation

The recommendation for Ms Forbes to resign came from the audit and risk committee’s report.

“I thought what had occurred was significantly serious enough to ask for a resignation,” said Anne O’Leary.

“Subsequently to that, she decided not to reply to our letter.”

Ms Forbes was then suspended, she said.

There was a “response by letter” either on the Sunday or the Monday, a legal rep from RTÉ tells the committee.

Earlier today, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Mr Turbidy, and his agent, Noel Kelly, must give their side of the secret payments story to the TDs and senators inquiring into the controversy, the Taoiseach has said.

Answering questions on his way into an EU leaders’ Brussels summit dominated by the war in Ukraine, Mr Varadkar also said that the Government is committed to funding public service broadcasting.

But he insisted that not all of the licence fee funds should go to RTÉ and should be shared more fairly.

Mr Varadkar said the two committee hearings at Leinster House were getting important evidence from the state broadcaster’s senior managers and board members. He also repeated his call for former director general, Dee Forbes, to come to the committee hearings.

“There are other people who could shine a light on this and they include Ryan Tubridy, they include his agent, and they include Dee Forbes. And I think they should be willing to come before the committee and answer questions,” Mr Varadkar told reporters.

“There are procedures and they will be treated fairly and I think that it would be the right thing for them to do their part. They may have a story to tell and I think its right that they should be allowed to tell their side of the story,” the Taoiseach continued.

“The fact that they would not, or that they would refuse, would be a matter of concern to me,” Mr Varadkar added.

The Taoiseach insisted that future RTÉ funding options and the current controversy were separate issues. He said the broadcaster had an important job to do to regain public confidence and this was best done by telling the Oireachtas committees the full truth of what happened about secret payments.

Mr Varadkar said he and the Government were committed to funding public service broadcasting. But most people now believed that there was more to public service broadcasting than RTÉ and the service was not entitled to all the licence fee revenue.

RTÉ Board Chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh rang Media Minister Catherine Martin this morning and apologised for not telling her she had asked director general Dee Forbes to resign.

Ms Ní Raghallaigh told the Media Committee yesterday she asked for Ms Forbes to resign on June 16 but this was “not forthcoming”.

Ms Forbes was suspended and later resigned

However, her being asked to resign was not relayed to the minister by the chair in their meeting last Saturday.

“The chair Siún Ni Raghallaigh did ring me this morning and explained, apologised, for any disquiet caused because of that. But it really was to do with due process and individual’s rights,” said Minister Martin.

She said she was told Ms Forbes was suspended as soon as it happened.

“I was informed as soon as the decision was taken to suspend.”

She said the meeting on Saturday the meeting was “focused on getting to the bottom of the numbers” which had emerged the day prior – that top presenter Ryan Tubridy was paid €345,000 more than had been made public.