Paul Hosford: More explosive episodes to come as RTÉ drama continues to unfold
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If you're in the business of long-running drama, RTÉ is the place to be. Unfortunately for the national broadcaster, it has been the subject and not the vehicle for that drama for another week and, boy, did it have everything.
RTÉ staff awoke on Sunday morning to a newspaper front page warning of 400 layoffs, a complete division between commercial and public broadcasting, and 2FM being sold off to the highest bidder. Senator Rónán Mullen wanted pay caps at the top and RTÉ bosses faced another grilling at the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday.
The committee had asked for a suite of documents from RTÉ to arrive by midday on Tuesday but by lunchtime there was no sign of them in any TD or senator's emails and word filtered out that an extension to the close of business had been granted by committee chair Niamh Smyth.
Breath was bated around the Leinster House campus up until 9pm when a revelation came — and not from the documents. RTÉ had three accounts with barter companies, a review of finances had found.
Then, as the RTÉ Nine O'Clock News theme tune struck up, the documents dropped.
Journalists looked for a sneak peek at what RTÉ had sent and the delay began to make sense.
In the packet was a letter from former director general Dee Forbes guaranteeing to underwrite Ryan Tubridy's commercial deal with Renault and to never ask him to take a pay cut. The letter was signed in July 2020, when RTÉ staff were on covid subsidies. The deal also showed that RTÉ was required to foot the bill to recreate a Late Late Show set-up with 100 VIP guests in the audience. The contract also stipulated that the broadcaster would supply finger food and drinks. It added that the broadcaster should "recreate setup with minimum three guests and including music from up-and-coming talent from each event location" and suggested surprise guests such as Ian Dempsey.
The following morning, however, more details reached bleary-eyed journalists as files on and the notorious barter account landed. The musical was a failure, the briefing notes showed, with just 20,000 people attending its 27-show run.
Only 11,044 of those tickets were actually sold, the rest were complimentary or competition/giveaway prizes. Revenue of just €496,000 was recorded, €2.7m less than had been projected, leading to a €2.2 million loss.
The barter account, we discovered, was used for a membership to a VIP club in London used to meet clients, for 60 Ireland football jerseys, and the now-infamous €4,957 on 200 pairs of Havaianas flip flops for an RTÉ summer party for agencies and clients.
The committee meeting itself was less explosive, but the revelation that an RTÉ staff member had had a loan of a car for five years and handed it back only in recent days set tongues wagging.
GAA host Marty Morrissey fell on the grenade and said it was him, but Senator Timmy Dooley — whose questions elicited the response from RTÉ — said on Thursday that he had been referring to a different case.
The week ended with incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst promising to begin making changes when he starts on Monday and Ryan Tubridy set to face two Oireachtas committees.
The drama will continue next week with more explosive episodes.