THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS Committee (PAC) has refused RTÉ’s request to bring a note, relating to a meeting that took place between Ryan Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly and ex-RTÉ boss Dee Forbes, to the committee in private.
Yesterday, RTÉ’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst wrote to the committee offering an “extensive and detailed summary” of a note taken during a meeting between Forbes and Kelly.
During this meeting, it was ultimately agreed, between RTÉ and Kelly, that the broadcaster would underwrite the agreement for Ryan Tubridy’s contract.
Bakhurst said that RTÉ would bring this note to the committee under the pretenses that it would not be published or made available to the public.
After a over-hour-long private session today, TD and chair of the Oireachtas Committee Brian Stanley said PAC’s “final decision” is that the note will have to be handed over to the government, without any redactions and in full.
The Journal understands that a number of members were unhappy with the proposal put forward by RTÉ yesterday.
Stanley said: “There’s a constitutional position of the PAC to be upheld, on our ability and to carry out our functions to report to the Oireachtas.”
He detailed that RTÉ were welcome to bring the note to the committee along with a solicitor’s summary, which can be used in public.
But the Chair of the PAC was quick to make clear that the choice to share the information in the note was for the committee to make, and not RTÉ management to decide.
“We don’t set a precedent as well in terms of public bodies, or otherwise, deciding what we can use and what we can’t use, where we discussed it and how we discuss it,” Stanley told The Journal this evening.
Bakhurst said, in his letter, that if the note was brought into the public sphere, it could jeopardize or breach the solicitor-client confidentiality clause between Forbes and the corporate solicitor.
However, Stanley claims there is “absolutely no credibility” to these claims.
Stanley said: “If there is a legal advice party [involved], that’s already diluted by virtue of the fact that the receiver to free to use it, but the other key piece here is that – there’s a third party present at the meetings. So there’s no confidentiality.”
The confidentiality thing, there’s just absolutely no credibility in claiming that.”
Asked this evening what might be the next steps if RTÉ refuse to hand over the note made during the meeting, Stanley said that this was the PAC’s “final decision” and that the group will not be left with their hands tied behind their backs.
Stanley said: “We have a job to do and we can’t do it if we allow our two hands to be tied behind our backs. That can’t happen. So we’re not going to accept that position (the note to be made private).”
“We’ve considered it very, very carefully. We’re trying to be helpful, and we believe this is a fair and reasonable way to deal with.
“We can, under standing orders receive it as confidential. But the confidentiality regarding sensitive correspondence, that’s dealt with in private session, it hasn’t been breached, certainly in the last three and a half years it hasn’t been breached.”
Stanley said that he wants the matter to be “wrapped up” and believes the events have been “dragged out too long”.
RTÉ was given the deadline of end-of-business on Monday to respond to the requests by the PAC to provide the “original note”, according to Stanley.
Additional reporting from Christina Finn.
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