RTÉ PAID OUT €2.7m to Revenue for claiming the Covid wage subsidy scheme when it should have ceased doing so.

The national broadcasters’ leadership team will appear before Oireachtas Media Committee at around 12.30pm to discuss issues such as a €3.6 million write-down on a partly failed IT system.

RTÉ is the first organisation to be invited to appear before the newly formed committee during this Dáil term.

Its Director General Kevin Bakhurst will tell the committee that in a “reflection of higher standards of transparency”, RTÉ last year undertook a review of its eligibility for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme that was put in place during the Covid pandemic.

RTÉ reviewed the period from 26 March to 31 August 2020, after it was found that RTÉ should have reassessed its eligibility in light of new guidance.

RTÉ is of the view that it should have ceased claiming the wage subsidy from 30 June 2020 as it did not meet the criteria for continued participation in the scheme.

This repayment for the months of July and August, including interest and penalties, amounted to €2.7m to the Revenue Commissioners.

Bakhurst will also remark that RTÉ “continues to fully engage with the Revenue Commissioners” in relation to a revenue audit which began last year and that it has made payments of €1.1m to date.

RTÉ has also been accused of issuing bogus self-employment contracts for workers and it emerged that RTÉ was examining 650 cases where workers who were hired as contractors could have been entitled to employee status.

Bakhurst will tell the Committee that over 80% of these 655 case reviews have now concluded and that of those looked at so far, 40% were incorrectly categorised at the time as contractors.

He will add that the New Direction plan is the best way forward for RTÉ and offers the best value for money and the most effective way that RTÉ can “remain viable and thrive into the future”.

The New Direction plan involves the loss of 400 jobs through a phased Voluntary Exit Programme in order to save money, as well as limiting presenter salaries. 

The voluntary exit programme has closed and 325 applications were received.

Much of it involves enhancing its current offerings, such as the RTÉ Player, while investing in new digital services. 

Meanwhile, Bakhurst will acknowledge that RTÉ has previously “made the headlines for all the wrong reasons”.

He will assure the Committee that RTÉ has taken a wide range of meaningful actions.

This includes a new strategy for “significant transformation of our working and financial model over the years ahead” and a commitment to a “smaller, more agile and efficient RTÉ”.

Meanwhile Terrance O’Rourke, the Chair of RTÉ, will note that the New Direction Strategy is now subject to quarterly progress oversight by the Board’s Strategy Committee.

He will add that the Board’s remuneration and management development committee now meets on a “regular schedule” and is “centrally involved in the approval of presenter contracts”.

“We understand that governance was not what it should have been in the past,” O’Rourke will say in his opening statement, “and we are committed to ensuring that the national broadcaster is run to the highest standards because that is what our audiences deserve.”