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Standing Down Of RTÉ Executive Board Welcomed By PAC Chair

Monday, 10 July 2023 10:29

Photo Credit: Twitter @RTE

The State broadcasters new Director General announced the decision this morning.

RTÉ staff have been meeting with the new Director General as he officially begins his role today.

It's after Kevin Bakhurst revealed the broadcaster's executive board had been stood down, in an email sent to staff earlier this morning.

A register of interests is to be established for staff and contractors. 

Chair of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, Laois Offaly Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley says it's a welcome statement from Mr. Bakhurst:

Mr. Bakhurst says he's "appalled by recent events" and that it was a difficult time for the organisation.

The Media Minister Catherine Martin said now was the time for a "reset" of RTÉ, and added that she awaits Mr Bakhurst's announcements.

Regardless of what those announcements entail, Mr Bakhurst is still set to face political scrutiny, as he appears before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday.

Before that though, Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly, will be before both the PAC and the Media Committee on Tuesday.

It's expected they will be watched with great interest and even some pubs in Dublin are going to be showing them.

There has to be a new funding model put in place, if a public service broadcaster is to exist.

They're the words of the Irish Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Ferbane's Seamus Dooley.

It comes as the Taoiseach has said a decision on whether the TV License fee will be scrapped, will be made in the current government's term.

Mr. Dooley says he welcomes the Taoiseach's promise, but it's not the first time a government has tried to reform the license fee:

The TV licence fee is "not working" says a local TD who is making the call for it to be scrapped.

Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín believes there is "significant anger" over the amount of money that has been put into RTÉ, in the face of recent financial scandals.

In the last two decades, over €3 billion has gone into the state broadcaster.

The Aontú leader says getting rid of the licence fee would help those who are struggling or in poverty:

Mr. Bakhurst has announced the temporary interim leadership team - they are:

  • Kevin Bakhurst, Director-General 
  • Eimear Cusack, Director of Human Resources 
  • Vivienne Flood, Head of Public Affairs
  • Mike Fives, Group Financial Controller, RTÉ
  • Adrian Lynch, Director Audiences, Channels, Marketing, and continuing as Acting Deputy DG 
  • Paula Mullooly, Director of Legal 
  • Deirdre McCarthy, Director of News & Current Affairs 
  • Niamh O'Connor, Deputy Director of Content
  • Conor Mullen, Head of Strategy & Commercial Compliance, RTÉ Media Sales
  • Richard Waghorn, Director of Operations and Technology 

Director General of RTÉ, Kevin Bakhurst says:

"In due course, there will be a new permanent leadership team. I want to underline that RTÉ, under my leadership and that of the re-constituted Interim Leadership Team, will be an organisation dedicated to working closely with you, to listening, to being open and transparent, to strictly adhering to revised and rigorous governance processes and procedures, to being accountable and to delivering a public service to be proud of. This will take time, but it will happen. It must. There is too much at stake.

I can confirm that RTÉ will publish the salaries of the Executive/permanent Interim Leadership Team along with the earnings of RTÉ's 10 highest paid presenters in our annual report every year, starting with Annual Report 2023."

Mr. Bakhurst has suggested parts of the broadcaster may need to be sold off.

Speaking this afternoon, he said any option for the financial stability of RTÉ is on the table:

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