RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Leo says laws may have been broken in regard to the secret barter account.

Surely both boards have to be stood down by the end of the day.

Id say all those working in the industry and hoping for reform of RTE be careful what you wish for, if the commercial and public service aspects are separated it will end up being like PBS America dull buth worthy not a place for a career in journlism it won't be the BBC because the money won't be there. Montrose will sold off and a small meida campas for the PBS bit. The commercial side will be just like Vergin or Newstalk.

But if the norm in an org is to issue a written contract for all employees services taken on then a service or employee being considered on the grounds of a verbal agreement is standing on very shaky ground if they are trying to argue that a contract is/was in place. Pull the OTHER LEG comes to mind

A couple of thoughts from me.

First, proceedings yesterday and previous utterances have left me completely unclear on whether RT is out of contract - I bet there will be a dispute over whether his extant contract lapsed when he gave up the LLS (questions abound about when and why he did that; of course) or whether it just triggered a review to take account of the fact he was going "Radio only" (not to be confused with "Radio Silence", which is where RT seems to be at the mo). When the RTE Legal person said that it might be a verbal contract, I shivered. Having worked in a semi-state, the concept of hiring (or retaining a contractor beyond their contract end) would not have existed, let alone be countenanced.

From my perspective, Anne O'Leary came out of it pretty well. She was clearly exasperated about the whole omni-shambles, she had the chronology, events, who said what to whom etc to hand and gave her evidence with clarity; which was poles apart from the performance of most of her colleagues. I hope she isn't thrown out with the bathwater when the day of reckoning comes (if it ever truly does!)

There may be a verbal contract eg if you turn up for the show we will pay you at previous rate from a previous contract etc.

However, I doubt that extends to any severance etc terms. If RTE say don't turn up, services no longer needed, that's that.

Unless there's some clause from the previous contract that could kick in, some sort of exit bonus \ loyalty on completion of contract and services no longer required.

This is a feeding frenzy for politicians trying to make themselves look good.

The junkets & top ups for senior staff, the fighting any pay or condition improvement for lower paid staff, arrogant senior management , disregard for value for taxpayers money, crazy payment and procurement processes - this is all in line with the wider civil service.

Nothing new here, except it's where the journos work .

Who is kicking up about the missing billion that vanished into the HSE?

SIPTU/NUJ could force the "talent" and agent issue by members refusing to work with any contractor presenter hired with the input of a third party agent. Primetime radio and tv wouldn't be long grinding to a halt and a resolution would have to be found quickly.

So Ryan "I had nothing to do with it" Tubridy (#kindness guru who spent every morning for the past few years preaching about supporting local communities by buying local) is happy to continue taking his outrageous fees as the scandal worsens. He hasn't offered to return a single cent to the public or to make any gesture whatsoever to try to make amends. I'm guessing he'll refuse the invitation to speak to PAC too.

Not surprising really when you look at those weasels in front of the committee. Millions in salaries between them and not an ounce of sincerity between them - "wasn't my responsibility", "i don't remember", "I don't know my salary". Then Dee Forbes and her mental health issues. Fúck me.

They're all carbon copies of one another; entitled, arrogant snobs. Interesting insight into the type of culture that created the self-anointed "Toyman", who has a strong track record in burying his head in the sand any time someone says anything he doesnt like

Not really walsh. Person in RTE in charge of account and/or commercial director, fine. Another person in RTE with nothing to do with the advertising account, or a spouse or relative of the RTE person, out of hand. It's fairly cut and dried and the rules should be documented. If not its more governance issues.

In a nutshell.

If RTE was a French broadcaster, the whole place would be in flames right now.

concentrating more on his job?? are you joking? weren't you watching?

and lol I am sure that as all this is about money and salary, that he as CFO would for sure know what he was being paid as i am sure that too was negotiated lol

he's toast anyway - Imelda even referred to him as a "redundant CFO"

I am pretty sure the entire exec board will be replaced soon enough. They might get a stay of execution due to Martin's 7 month report but they are toast on the long run. A couple might retire or resign in the meantime. There will be zero confidence in RTE while any of them are there keeping the dodgy culture alive.

I wonder will we see the board minutes. It sounds like there was very little governance so the minutes could be scant.

I remember the minutes that went completely missing when the superquango Irish Water was being setup. Hogan hid them.

Issuing an invoice/s for 150k to a publicly funded company offering services which were never given and the payee of that invoice then concealing from their own employer the reason for the payments is serious and as the Taoiseach said does appear to have strayed into the wrong side of the law. People can say what they like about the payments to Tubridy, but it was how it was done which is potentially illegal and fraudulent. You can't just divert public funds to someone without proper invoices or accounting for it and concealing it from the cfo, board and auditors.