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Barter Account Revelations Adds Further Pressure To RTÉ

Wednesday, 5 July 2023 08:43

The national broadcaster spent €1.6m over ten years on client entertainment.

Ryan Tubridy and his agent are to cooperate fully with the Oireachtas Media Committee investigation into the payments scandal at RTE. 

In a letter to the committee today solicitors for Mr. Tubridy and Noel Kelly say their clients believe they have 'important information' that will help the investigation and clarify matters. 

Both have said they are prepared to submit themselves to questioning. 

It emerged last night a number of other barter accounts were held by the national broadcaster which were used to pay for around 1.6 million euro in hospitality.

That's despite senior RTÉ officials stating last week, only one barter account was in existence.

Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath says RTÉ providing inaccurate information to an Oireachtas Committee is a serious matter:

Documents furnished to the Oireachtas Media Committee have revealed further barter accounts used to fund €1.6m in client entertainment over the course of ten years. 

Those accounts funded trips to the Rugby World Cup in Japan and were used to purchase 10 year IRFU season tickets.

Committee Chair Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth says she struggles to have confidence in the executive board at this point:

The National Union of Journalists believes those at the top of RTÉ have undermined the broadcaster's workers and their relationship with the public. 

General Secretary of the NUJ, and Ferbane's Seamus Dooley, says those practices should never have happened:

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