Senator says Marty Morrissey 'unfairly' brought into RTÉ controversy
Nolan Morrissey Marty Photograph Moya
A Fianna Fáil senator has defended Marty Morrissey after the GAA commentator confirmed he was the RTÉ staff member who used a free car for more than five years in a ‘ad-hoc’ arrangement.
The issue first came to light as a result of the RTÉ appearance at the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday, when under questioning from Senator Timmy Dooley, interim deputy-director general Adrian Lynch confirmed the arrangement was in place.
Mr Morrissey, the Gaelic Games correspondent for RTÉ, released a statement on Thursday afternoon where he apologised and said he returned the vehicle on June 23.
Speaking on Friday morning, Mr Dooley said that the statement answered some questions "very comprehensively" but noted that the questions he had asked the RTÉ executives were not related to Mr Morrissey. He said his questions at the committee meeting had queried who in RTÉ was getting paid a car allowance out of licence fees.
He told : "The reality is, none of that applied to [Mr Morrissey] but for some reason, RTÉ management decided to create this notion about an individual who had a car loan — created this hype and that caused Marty to effectively clarify the situation.
"In his case, he's not getting a car allowance, so his situation didn't relate to the question — and neither is he a car ambassador.
Mr Morrissey will provide commentary on this weekend's matches in the All-Ireland hurling championship and the All-Ireland camogie championship for RTÉ.
It was put to Mr Dooley that this situation was similar to that of Ryan Tubridy, who will remain off-air as the investigation into secret payments made to him by RTÉ continues.
However, Mr Dooley said the situations were "entirely different".
"Marty has gotten nothing from the license holder apart from his salary. He has been pulled into this controversy unfairly and unnecessarily."
Mr Dooley added that he believes that there is an "issue" involving RTÉ and brand ambassadors, but that people must be careful in trying to get to the bottom of it.
“I think we've got to be careful through all of this in trying to get to the bottom of resolving the culture in RTÉ that we don't scapegoat people. And I think the same applies to some extent to Ryan, probably because they're high profile names.
"They get outed and people make comments and they get somewhat carried away in public discourse. At the end of the day, somebody at senior management in RTÉ signed off on Ryan Tubridy’s contract.
"That wasn't Ryan Tubridy’s fault, quite frankly, himself and his agent or his agent on his behalf, sought to do the best deal they could, unwise perhaps that they've pushed it so far, but not nothing wrong with somebody trying to fight to get the greatest deal for themselves."
Mr Dooley said Mr Morrissey came forward "with a very open and frank statement".
"He has issued apologies. He has identified the practice as being unwise. Who amongst us haven't done things that were unwise and with the benefit of hindsight, might have done things a little bit differently," said Mr Dooley, adding: "That of itself does not target the person as being responsible for what's actually happening at management level within RTÉ".
Explaining the arrangement on Thursday, Mr Morrissey said he had been offered the car by Renault in 2017 after undertaking a commercial appearance for which he was not paid. He said he has continued this “informal arrangement” for the last number of years and has MCed “about 12” events for the car manufacturer.
However, he said he has “never been appointed brand ambassador for Renault”.