RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121104981#Comment_121104981

In a way they are correct. This crisis is really only big because the public can't be trusted to fork out the licence fee reliably. If the fee was mandatory on every household or paid out of general taxation, then although there would be a bit of a fuss about the Tubridy payment, after maybe a resignation or two at the very top and maybe a vague promise of reform, the whole thing would be over by now.

I bet the politicians were wishing they had implemented licence fee reform while most people were resigned to paying the licence fee anyway before all this kicked off. Now a sizable number have stopped paying it and it will be hard to make them start paying again.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106829#Comment_121106829

Whilst pursuing legal action against RTE because he wants his job back

hotmail.com

No Dee Forbes again.

At what point will she be compelled to attend questioning?

jack of all

Dee Forbes would sooner pluck out her eyes, ridiculous glasses and all before she'd answer to any committee hearing.

retalivity

Dee and the RTE bigwigs dont want her appearing, she is out the door, but she knows where the bodies are buried. If she is going down youd imagine she'll take loads of others with her.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106722#Comment_121106722

He seems to have been off grid for the last ........ 2 days at least.

artvanderlay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107129#Comment_121107129

He probably crashed the Vespa into a hedge on one of those empty residential roads in Blackrock.

artvanderlay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106207#Comment_121106207

My and my wife thought it was hilarious when the camera cut back to her and you could see the glee on her face. We burst out laughing! Fair play to her.

As to her lack of ambition, maybe she has some morals and didn't want to work with a bunch of overpaid, talentless arseholes in RTE. When Tubridy, D'Arcy and Duffy are the top dogs there, it says something about their "talent pool" and management there are clearly scumbags too. Not everybody is a money-grabbing, immoral shill like those that populate RTE: she probably has peace of mind working for Virgin, if a significantly less paycheck.

I much prefer Virgin news, (and Collette) over RTE news too.

72sheep

From the reports seems like our faithful public servant politicians between them all didn't think to ask about: (1) Moya getting 800k, (2) Breda's slyly taking €500k redundancy package, (3) why Siun ushered Dee out of the building before the investigations, (4) when Dee will be asked to answer questions, (5) when Jennings will be asked to answer questions,...  

Also, the state of those Board members: the comb-over king from 'murica, spikey grey-haired club-boy, the Brian Kennedy lookalike, deputy chair I-luv-u-Kevin Herr Flick, Larry King Harvey... I suppose we're lucky things aren't worse than they are, LOL!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106770#Comment_121106770

Shelve their top comedy show, ah lord no😅

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106937#Comment_121106937

Dee Forbes should be interviewed from her 'sick' bed! In person, Teams, I don't mind. She's surely not so unwell that she can't talk.

TinyMuffin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107129#Comment_121107129

Probably found a gorgeous book to get lost in.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106987#Comment_121106987

This is Ireland. Dee Forbes has already got away with it. Massive pension and years of gravy train. She won't be appearing to satiate the peasants. This is Ireland.

Topgear on Dave

RTE Union rep on morning ireland now complaining about the recruitment freeze.

He's away with the fairies. The arse is falling out of your company income and a recruitment freeze is a shock to him??

TedBundysDriver

Licence fee was due their last week and we aren't paying it. Unless i see real change along with massive job cuts and saving then they won't be seeing a single cent of my hard earned again.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107517#Comment_121107517

It does seem a distraction by RTE though. Recruitment freezes don't necessarily reduce costs. They should have come in with some real news e.g pay cuts across the board (especially for overpaid talent).

Viscount Aggro

What's needed are pay cuts, from top down.

Forget a recruitment freeze, start downsizing the organisation. Call it Operation Transformation. Redundancies across the board, with statutory payments.

rock22

Very disappointed with Siun, and all the board, to be honest.

I would have expected Siun, as chair to answer all questions, passing to the executive board only for furhther details. However she seemed complete unsure what was going on. When RTE was asked why the minister hadn't been informed about the reinstatement of the 10% salary cut to the executive, she remained silent and it had to be answered by KB. ( who only said he couldn't understand how that happened, i.e. couldn't understand how lacking in ability the chair was).

All the board seemed to be saying they were kept in the dark until the past month, with the arrival of KB. Which means that Siun , for almost a year, was not ensuring the board got the information it needed to do its' duty.

A bigger problem though is what role is RTE to play into the future. Everyone seems to agree we need public service broadcasting. But everyone also seems to admit that younger people do not engage with broadcast TV. So is RTE's ambition to provide a service to the older population only? Or do they have a new digital strategy which will attract younger people?

Nothing said by Siun would indicate that the board have any idea where they are going. But they want more public money to get there.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107562#Comment_121107562

Kathryn Thomas to present...NK management to represent her....

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107643#Comment_121107643

I would concur with that synopsis.

Generally speaking, I feel the public are not too concerned about recruitment bans and bans on discretionary spending and the inner workings of RTE.

What they want to see before they pony up their hard earned moolah to Montrose is a curb on the couple of hundred of 'high rollers' both management and

'talent' who seem to have been running the place like their own personal 'fiefdom' for years .They have seen appalling management practices, purely appalling that no commercial company could tolerate and they are being asked to invest in such an outfit with the majority of the same folk there!!!!

Is it any wonder there is withholding of license fees?

There were vague platitudes from management yesterday but nothing really concrete and it would appear that the penny has not dropped yet.

I realise these changes can't be made at the drop of a hat but , some positive measurable robust action must ensue and quickly to prevent the

whole shooting gallery going down the tubes.

The 'Monkstown Mafia' as I heard them referred to have to be taken on and a sense of realism brought into the whole outfit.

The gravy train has hit the buffers.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107507#Comment_121107507

She got away with it the first day she arrive in the door. She was given a massive honeymoon period. Her first task as DG.

1. Is my €50,000 moving fee for moving home from London (via Cork) in my bank account yet?
2. This office needs something. How much do we have for a refurb.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107643#Comment_121107643

They couldn't have been in the Dark, they signed off on the Annual Report 2022. Which was written before all of this happened.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107507#Comment_121107507

She needs to be compelled to attend. It can be handled carefully and mindful of adding additional stress. Public accountability is essential in order to restore trust.

sliabh 1956

What ever did RTE do to Sheehan he is having a right go at them again today in the Indo I remember himself and Vincent having a right go at each other but that was on TV3 . But he is once again out defending Tubs and of course he never mentions the outstanding money that Tubs owes for work not done. I cant remember him being on the LLS very often or ever. He seems very supportive of him for some strange reasons.On a wider angle from a sports point of view if RTE are bankrupt how are they going to bid for sports events going forward . A lot of these Associations depend on TV money to operate so they will look elsewhere for finances ,and that no doubt will involve Pay For View.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108030#Comment_121108030

Yeah Sheehan was happy to pile in on Tubridy and RTE while Tubridy was still seen as part of RTE. Got in a few zingers too.

But then went full team Team Tubridy with attacks on RTE and the Indo running an obvious campaign to soft rehabilitate Tubridy.

I dunno if that is being done because of ties between Indo and NKM, or if Sheehan thinks this is a better angle to push.

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107562#Comment_121107562

Spot on.

A recruitment freeze is not in any way an impressive start to the reform needed, imo. It probably hits only the lower paid echelons anyway. Start cutting out the deadwood and fast.

RoTelly

I'd argue for pay cuts at the top levels. Start by removing any allowance to those people. Get them to leave because they can get better remuneration in other companies. Don't replace them if they do go... they won't.

Two things that have never really worked out for RTÉ

1. Sale of Assets
2. Redundancies

Schorpio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108339#Comment_121108339

Sheehan's take on this is very odd to me.

When he was on Prime Time a few weeks ago, along with Terry Prone and Fintan O'Toole, Sheehan was the only one of the three to defend RT; but almost to a point where he didn't make sense. He was talking about RT being vindicated etc. - except RT clearly hadn't been. The statement RT put out showed that he still disputed that the published '20 and '21 salary figures were wrong - which they clearly were. RT also had the matter of the €150k still hanging over him. Those are facts, not opinions.

Sheehan is not thick. I don't get what his angle is here. Any journalist should be able to call this as it is, but Sheehan is incessantly trying to spin it.

RoTelly

Just as an aside. I was stuck in traffic yesterday morning and end up listing to Pat Kenny, he was taking about the Car Allowances and explaining them away. What was interesting that he received 4 or 5 text messages, and they all reiterated the same mantra that we'd seen here on this thread over the previous one or two days.

I work in the financial section of a major company, this is away for the company to save money on Pensions and other aspects of pay that the employer would have to pay out on if these payments were part of the annual wage.

I never got an answer to how much RTÉ saved on such allowances verus had they been part of the normal pay packet.

But of course here's me thinking, just drop the allowance and don't increase the pay.

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108408#Comment_121108408

Recruitment freeze is nonsense. My employer has a recruitment freeze implemented early this year but doesn’t effect the hiring of contractors to do the same job. So RTE announcing a recruitment freeze without specifics is utter nonsense.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106607#Comment_121106607

“Legal letters have been exchanged” is about the height of it right now I think.

Whether or not it will enter a formal court process remains to be seen. I imagine the sums of unpaid money claimed by RT amount to a multiple of the 150k RTÉ are claiming RT should pay back for the “Renault work” - as I think his contract was up in 2025?

Could be wrong on some of those points but I’d doubt we’ll see any money returned by RT until this issue on pay is legally clarified or agreed by both parties.

TBH- it’s yet another side show- RTÉ should just close it down.