Background Image: JIR Moronta.
Raidió Teilifís Éireann, more colloquially known as RTÉ, has recently been the subject of an ongoing public scandal surrounding staff pensions. More specifically, a series of undisclosed payments to former leading presenter Ryan Tubridy over a period of five years.
Background
In late June 2023, reports surfaced revealing that the Irish public broadcaster has not been entirely truthful in their release of staff annual salaries. According to The Journal, secret payments were made to Tubridy over the course of 2017 to 2022 totaling around €345,000. It is common practice for RTÉ to release the annual salaries of its staff; however, it does so with a delay of two years. For example, when disclosing salaries in 2023, the amount actually reflects that of staff earnings in 2021.
Crucially, even without these additional secret payments, Tubridy was well-known for being the highest-earning presenter at RTÉ.
This means that the broadcaster has quietly been paying their highest-earning presenter hundreds of thousands of euros more than what they were disclosing to not only the public, but also their own staff.
When the news regarding these secret payments broke in June, RTÉ and Tubridy quickly found themselves the subjects of international headlines. Due to the high-profile nature and societal impact of this scandal, RTÉ appeared before the Oireachtas shortly after in July where more jarring revelations were made following an investigation into their dealings. It was found that RTÉ used barter accounts in order to facilitate the payments to Tubridy. In short, barter accounts are a manner in which companies can ‘trade goods and services for other goods and services’ and ‘accounts for barter transactions are often operated by brokerages that charge fees’.
This is significant because in the case of RTÉ, their usual use of barter accounts is for commercial advertising purposes, not for staff payment. Even further, being that barter transactions technically cost more due to the fees charged by brokerages, RTÉ actually spent more money on the secret payments to Tubridy than he received. This means there was further undisclosed expenditure on the part of the national broadcaster.
Interestingly, the existence of these secret payments was only revealed months after it was announced Tubridy would be stepping down as host of the Late Late Show. After his announcement, it was reported that ‘internal auditors examining RTÉ’s accounts for 2022 discovered an issue around what the broadcaster has described as “transparency of certain payments”’. But again, this discovery by the auditors was made in March 2023, whereas the information only became publicly available in late June 2023.
Ramifications of this scandal
The secret payments were kept under tight wraps within the RTÉ Board until June. Employees and staff of the broadcaster were kept in the dark and discovered the existence of these dealings at the same time as the public.
Immediately following the first announcements of the payments, RTÉ staff along with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) called for an investigation into the broadcaster’s financial dealings as well as for the Board to make themselves available for questioning. NUJ members at RTÉ also organised a protest calling for financial transparency from the broadcaster. Many RTÉ staff members have gone on the record to state their ‘betrayal’ and ‘disappointment,’ calling the broadcaster ‘disgraceful’ and ‘distasteful’.
Logos of the Late Late Show and The Ryan Tubridy Show, RTÉ.
On the political front, as previously stated, RTÉ appeared before the Oireachtas as part of a hearing regarding their lack of financial transparency. Many politicians have made comments and posed questions to the broadcaster outside of the hearing. Notably, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced at an EU Leaders Summit in Brussels that ‘I don’t think we can rule out the fact that it’s not just a case of irregular payments – and that some of these payments may have been on the wrong side of the law’. Tánaiste Micheál Martin also made comments criticising RTÉ for ‘breach of trust’.
There has been public uproar over the existence of these secret payments. In the early stages of the investigation, much of the public was left confused by what actually transpired and what this meant in regards to the RTÉ’s responsibility. After the Oireachtas hearing and further revelations since, the broadcaster has seen a significant drop in TV licence purchases by the general public. As of September 2023, the TV licence drop continues to be a prominent effect of the scandal. Much of the public is hesitant to support RTÉ through obtaining TV licences as the lack of transparency reflects poorly on their credibility.
In response to the scandal and the subsequent backlash, RTÉ decided to cut all ties with Tubridy and permanently remove him from the network in mid-August. This decision prompted further headlines questioning the move; removing Tubridy appears to be RTÉ’s attempt at distancing themselves from the payee, but it has only caused more controversy.
Integrity and reputation
All of this has left the public wondering what the future holds for RTÉ. How, if at all, will they rebuild their reputation? It has now been over three months since the news first broke regarding these secret payments, and more details are still being released in regards to what exactly transpired between RTÉ and Tubridy. Over the coming months RTÉ will certainly make significant changes and efforts in order to regain public trust and remove themselves from the political spotlight. Whether or not they succeed is up to their staffs’ support and the public’s opinion.
A large hurdle for RTÉ will likely be regaining their journalistic integrity and reputation on the international stage. In making global headlines for these secret payments, news sources like the BBC and CNN, amongst others, have reported on the matter.
Taking this all into account, it begs the question of how this event will impact journalists and journalism in general across the globe. Will probes be made into the financial reports of other major news organisations? Will journalists begin to demand more pay transparency and fairness?
The gap of pay between hosts like Tubridy versus others in the newsroom is vast. Hosts like Tubridy are paid as though they are high-profile in order to keep them within the organisation. Other hosts and reporters with similar job functions are not paid nearly the same merely because their social status is not the same. Similar situations have happened recently with the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America (WGA) strikes in the United States where actors and writers across the country went on strike demanding fair compensation for their work, noting significant pay discrepancies.
This RTÉ scandal opens the door for a variety of discussions related to fairness within the field of journalism and what may lie within the financial dealings of other news organisations around the world.
