RTÉ to appear before department over ‘upstairs-downstairs’ revelations

By Cillian Sherlock and Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association

The Tánaiste has criticised an apparent “upstairs-downstairs” situation at RTÉ as station bosses are to be brought before the Department of Communications following a fresh payment controversy.

Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan is due to meet with RTÉ bosses on Tuesday evening after it was revealed that Derek Mooney has been at least its ninth highest-paid presenter since 2020 – but had not featured in annual lists as he was classified as a producer.

He has also said he wanted to “flesh out” why RTÉ paid Claire Byrne and Ray D’Arcy almost €100,000 after they left Radio One.

The Cabinet is also considering legislation that would move RTÉ under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Speaking to reporters before Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Tánaiste Simon Harris said: “I think there’s a lot of hard work and decent people in RTÉ who will feel let down by this latest set of revelations.”

He added: “I don’t want to push to personalise it to anyone, because I think that serves no purpose, but it’s beginning to look like there’s a little bit of an upstairs-downstairs situation going on in RTÉ, that certain producers can be over here, and that’s not fair. It’s not fair in any organisation.

“So, there’s a fairness issue here, there’s a transparency issue here, and then there’s just an accuracy issue here, fairness, transparency and accuracy. And we need all three of them to ensure we don’t have Groundhog Day.”

Harris said a lack of transparency was not acceptable to the Irish public as he criticised a “drip-feed” of information.

He added: “None of this ‘will there be another revelation?’, no salacious detail – we just need facts, information and transparency.”

O’Donovan said he expected to get “clarity” from RTÉ in the meeting and to find out who to blame in the wake of the further financial issues.

There is a lot of hurt in the organisation because people thought this is the end of it, and clearly it is not

Ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, he said: “We’ve been down this road before, and here we are again.”

He said RTÉ staff are “very aggrieved” and that he had received anonymous correspondence from staff at the broadcaster.

“There is a lot of hurt in the organisation because people thought this is the end of it, and clearly it is not.”

He said there cannot be a “vacuum” in the company and that they cannot have a “relationship built on revelation”.

O’Donovan criticised the “recategorisation” of Mooney as a producer, adding: “It’s a very fancy word – I don’t know if the public will understand it – I never heard of it until last week.”

He also questioned why RTÉ waited weeks to bring the matter to his department.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said bringing RTÉ under the aegis of the Comptroller and Auditor General would create “a more structured framework for accountability”.

He said the revelations on Mooney had created concerns, as he stressed it was “essential” to maintain confidence in the public service broadcaster.

Asked about an ongoing process in which a change consultant has been brought into RTÉ, Harris said there were a lot of hardworking people in the broadcaster but taxpayers “quite rightly” had some concerns.

Asked how much the consultant was being paid, O’Donovan said he did not know as he was not the director general.

Meanwhile, Oireachtas Media Committee member Malcolm Byrne said all personnel in RTÉ in receipt of more than €100,000 in salaries or payments should have those details published annually.

RTÉ is due to appear before that committee on Wednesday.