RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

The galling thing for them must be that they were so close to a mandatory public service charge payable by every household regardless of TV ownership.

The broadcasting charge will be brought in after a symbolic rolling of heads, assurances of greater oversight, restructuring and much handwringing.

It's already been said here, but get rid of 2FM, cast RTE2 into commercial abyss and ensure RTE1 produces content that is at least 65% compliant with its role as a public sector broadcaster. The likes of Dancing with the RTE stars could be fcuked in the bin as a starting point.

Well, that's the Toyman's comeback scuppered.

The Government is expected to grant powers set out in the Broadcasting Act to allow for the appointment of an auditor to review RTÉ finances.

The Cabinet is set to give the green light to the proposal, which would give Minister for Media Catherine Martin and Government direct oversight of RTÉ's accounts.

Section 109 of the Broadcasting Act enables the minister to appoint a person to examine the books or other financial records of RTÉ.

They can look back over any financial year or any other time period.

The legislation states that the person appointed must be fully assisted by the organisation.

It follows controversy surrounding the misstating of payments to presenter Ryan Tubridy.

Ryan Tubridy received €345,000 above his annual published salary over six years

RTÉ is understood to have assured Minister Martin that it will cooperate fully with any review.

The person or team appointed can be led by an accountant, auditor or any person deemed necessary.

They will be appointed if deemed necessary by an external review panel, which is due to investigate RTÉ's corporate governance and culture.

The terms of reference for that external review panel are expected to be approved by Cabinet on Tuesday.

If approved, a short process will commence before the external review panel gets to work.

Separately, RTÉ's annual report and group financial statement for 2022 were presented to Minister Martin's department on Friday.

They are currently being assessed by her department.

External Review

Work has been under way this weekend to finalise the terms of reference for an external review of RTÉ's corporate governance and culture.

It was hoped that those terms of reference would have been completed earlier this week and would have been approved by a teleconference Cabinet.

However, the Government now believes that the terms of reference merit a full Cabinet discussion and so it will be presented to them during their weekly meeting on Tuesday.

The external review is expected to take a number of months, with a panel of individuals likely to be appointed to carry it out.

While the Government is eager to have answers promptly, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also told the Dáil this week that it would be better to do it right, rather than quickly.

The Labour Party's Alan Kelly told RTÉ bosses that he wants to see every bank account the organisation controls, including the barter account.

He also wants an audit of celebrity appearances on shows to see if these were "part of any deal", along with information on all talent agents.

Alan Kelly requested that a legal note related to a "Teams call", where the tri-partite commercial agreement was approved, be presented to the committee.

RTÉ's Director of Legal Affairs told the committee however that this document was protected by legal privilege.

It was going on back then too. The difference is you were blissfully unaware of it at that time. With this in mind I suspect Michael and Leo will want a new story to come along soon. They don't really want this onion peeled as it might reveal things that might be awkward for them too.

That's why you have to laugh at many of the politicians falling over themselves to be more outraged than the next one over all this.

Runri is another NKM stooge that did not last long here. They are all now coming out of the woodwork over the past few days trying to get this thread shut down whilst also besmirching an excellent poster.

but they are only on that circa 100,000 because Ryan Joe and Claire are on multiples of that, so that was used as a benchmark to pull so many underlings above the 100K mark. Hopefully they publish the top 100.

There seems to be an effort by the the journos on newstalk etc to try and bury this story, there will be a big effort to get this removed as the no1 news item. Luckily the Mail and Times aswell as social media will continue digging into this

A huge amount of people have said that to me over the last few days. I certainly won't be paying it.

The goverment won't let RTE fold. The Irish taxpayer needs a public broadcaster and we need it to be transperant and most of all honest with the irish tax payer. I hope there is acountability but to be honest i can' t see much acounttability at the end of this disgusting saga. As we have see the board are happy to sit at any committee meeting and take the flack . They are not going to give up their cushy salary no matter what comes their way. It's us the tax payer that will foot the bill. Nothing ever changes in this country when it comes to holding those to account that have mislead the goverment and the people of Ireland.

Paid mine in May but after what has come to light over the past few weeks it will probably be the last time.

People are angry and non payment is one way ordinary folk can hit that corrupt organisation where it hurts.