RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

I hope one of the positives that comes out from this fiasco is that is shines a light on the what is going in these public/semi public companies and departments. It seems that the management are creaming off most of the budget for themselves and then sending the crumbs to the frontline where budget is needed. You can bet if it is going on in RTE with their budget you can picture what is going in places where the budget is bigger. I am surprised there has never really been much focus on the HSE and the way they allocate the budget and the amount waste in there.

I have absolutely no doubt that Geraldine will be fired first. She was completely out of control when it came to spending taxpayer money. I'd say they will wait for the PAC hearings to end and then fire her. Then again Catherine Martin said her report would take 7 months which is crazy stuff - they may need Geraldine around for that Q&A.

And who are you today? Seriously, get a grip at some point. The act is see through. RT can help you with the narcissism.

The CFO is irking me more and more. If he didn't know about these payments what on earth was he doing every day. Forwarding emails and blindly accepting responses? I've never worked any place whose Financial control team weren't absolutely scrupulous about each and every penny. That's their job.

The banks, the church, the guards, the justice system, the hse, the olympics committee, rte, scouting ireland, horse racing ireland....

The list goes on and on.

Is there any institution in this country that hasn't been tainted by corruption or scandal and is fit for purpose??

Great post and I complete agree with the clerical abuse comment. In this instance they are saying it's only one "bad egg" (Dee Forbes) but it's clear there is a culture of superiority, untouchability, arrogance and cover-up.

They have been utterly found out now even though they are still withholding information. Interesting to see if the they bring all the Barter account payments to the next PAC.

You know, it was a good week for Ireland. For once we got to see the system working and exposing the rot in elite circles.

Small country where everyone knows everyone. Could lead to that feeling

While I don't have much time for Cosgrave, I'm glad he did this. The only way to hold the likes of Kelly and Forbes to account is to get the gardai involved, who cannot now just brush this off.

Forbes/Kelly allegedly conspired to defraud taxpayers with false invoices requesting payment for services that were never provided and those invoices were then passed on to the cfo and auditors as fact. Very serious offence potentially and huge sums involved, which the gardai must investigate. At the very least they need to interview Kelly and Forbes.

I'd imagine the revenue commissioners will be very interested in the barter account and if tax on BIK was paid on everything. And if RTE pay that tax, as they did the PRSI for wealthy stars, there will be uproar.

I'm at a loss on why we need to hire someone living in London too. Has rte no"talent" coming through the ranks to take over. Seems odd.

Whether it's unusual or not, it's totally inappropriate. Just looks like the staff are using company money to pay for themselves to attend events and bringing clients as the way of justifying it. They are a broadcaster funded by public money, not a private media organisation.

A few free tickets for employees to attend RTE events is no big deal. But trips abroad for clients and staff are not justifiable unless it is to cover a news story etc.

Also, surely RTE pay enough to the IRFU to show the 6 nations etc to get a few tickets to the matches in the Aviva....

I believe Tubridy is still being paid even though he is not on the radio at the moment.