RTÉ interim leadership team announced following controversies

RTÉ Director-General Kevin Bakhurst has stood down the organisation’s Executive Board, which has been replaced with a temporary interim leadership team to continue running the organisation.

Speaking today, Kevin Bakhurst:

“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.”

He continued: “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.”

In late March of this year during a routine audit of RTÉ’s 2022 accounts, an issue was identified in relation to the transparency of certain payments. The broadcaster which is Ireland’s equivalent of the BBC – although has a mix of commercial advertising and a licence fee – have noted that on finding the financial concerns they commissioned Grant Thornton to carry out an independent fact-finding review on the matter in question.

Ryan Tubridy, RTÉ

The matter in question concerns payments made to presenter Ryan Tubridy who hosted, until last month The Late Late Show for RTÉ One television as well as a radio programme for the organisation. Official published wages of Tubridy from RTÉ turned out to be inaccurate with the presenter paid far more between 2017 and 2022.

In a statement at the time the news broke in June 2023 former Chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh said; “This is a matter of profound regret for the Board of RTÉ.  We are well aware that this is a serious breach of trust with the public. On behalf of the Board, I wish to apologise for what has occurred.” Other concerns discovered included how RTÉ conducted corporate entertainment for advertising clients.

RTÉ, like many public media organisations across Europe, is dual funded, meaning it relies on income from the licence fee and commercial activity to sustain its public services. Licence fee income represents c. 55% of RTÉ’s total income, with the balance coming from commercial activities. RTÉ’s dual funded model was recently reaffirmed by the Future of Media Commission.

Because RTÉ is dual funded, RTÉ’s commercial activities are restricted by statute and Ministerial decision. RTÉ is permitted approximately half the commercial airtime (on both radio and TV) of independent/commercial broadcasters.

The temporary team now overseeing RTÉ comprises of; 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 and Richard Waghorn, Director of Operations and Technology

In addition, an external Corporate Governance Expert is to be recruited the Irish public service broadcaster has stated.