THE RTÉ PAYMENT scandal has brought about a moment of reckoning for the national broadcaster, with hundreds of employees taking to the grounds of Montrose to demand answers from management.
Emma O’Kelly, Education Correspondent and Chair of the National Union of Journalists Broadcasting Branch, led this afternoon’s rally, and gave a most scathing excoriation of RTÉ management’s apparent two-tier treatment of their stars and their staffers.
“It’s unbelievable, first of all, that somebody who’s earning €440,000 a year needed to get more money and needed to get it in secret,” said O’Kelly, obviously referring to RTÉ’s top-earner Tubridy, whose earnings had been underreported by RTÉ to the tune of €345,000 over six years.
“That is unbelievable, and we all felt it was unbelievable. But we also felt it was believable too, because many of us either have personal battles in here, or we’ve seen colleagues, so we know what goes on and we know the culture of this organisation,” she said.
While RTÉ’s workers were protesting – among them veteran correspondents such as Fergal Bowers, Paul Cunningham and Orla O’Donnell – former Director General Dee Forbes announced that she would not be participating in this week’s Oireachtas Committees, due to health reasons.
In her resignation statement, issued yesterday, Forbes said the stress of the scandal for which she accepts she is “ultimately responsible” has had “a very serious and ongoing impact on [her] health and wellbeing”.
It is fair to say that the atmosphere among Montrose’s correspondents, researchers, producers, freelancers, léiritheoirí, camera workers and clerical staff is also one of stress.
RTÈ staffers at Montrose this afternoon demanding answers from management. Chanting led by Education Correspondent Emma O’Kelly. pic.twitter.com/coXuxbgt30
— Carl Kinsella (@TVsCarlKinsella) June 27, 2023
Beneath the palpable tension, a common theme throughout all the speeches was the sense of pride that many RTÉ staffers take in their responsibility to provide public service broadcasting, pride which has been sullied by the scandal.
“It really hangs heavy on us. We work very hard to bring the truth and to bring the news to people what’s been done by a small number of people whose organisation is undermining that and has undermined all of us and that is one of the things that makes me most angry,” said Clíodhna Ní Anluain, a culture and arts producer.
“We work very hard to get the trust of people and that has been compromised by a small group of people in this organisation and the the best thing they can do now is to be frank, open and honest and give the truth. Do not hide behind anything about processes or commercial sensitivity,” she said.
Political correspondent Paul Cunningham raised the issue of freelancers, whom he said are continually told that “take it or leave it, if you don’t like us, there’s the high road”.
“Now we find out that there is a special arrangement for special people. There shouldn’t be any special people in this organisation.”
The fury with which the scandal has been received by ordinary RTÉ employees would seem to cast doubt on Tubridy’s intention to return to his daily radio show.
While the secret nature of the payments to Tubridy evidently rankles with the hundreds who congregated this afternoon, it is clear that the dissatisfaction at RTÉ runs deeper — permeating entire divisions within the organisation.
Foireann @rtenews @NuachtRTE an Iarthuaiscirt ag léirsiú go ciúin ar an láthair oibre ag am lóin lena ndíomá a léiriú faoi easpa trédhearcachta @rte son phobal faoi thuarastal #RyanTubridy @NUJofficial #díomá #inisanfhírinne pic.twitter.com/EGyPHSJY8H
— Ailbhe Ó Monacháin (@AilbheOM) June 27, 2023
Caoimhe Ní Laighin, of Nuacht RTÉ, said: “We have zero resources at the moment. Our staff has been reduced consistently over the years since I’ve started.
“At the moment we’ve gone to the ignominy of having no camera even at the weekend. We have to go to the English language news and try and work around that. They’re very helpful towards us, but it really leaves us with no coverage at all. Our equipment is all falling apart.”
“We know for example, that there’s no crew in the midlands, there’s no crew in the northeast,” said Emma O’Kelly, with Midlands correspondent Sinead Hussey also in attendance at today’s demonstration.
“Because when people go and look for that crew, try to get a crew, we’re told there’s no money. We’ve been hearing that for years. It goes from crewing to chairs for VT editors, but it’s not just us who suffer the brunt of this, it is our viewing public.”
That viewing public may currently be wrapped up in the immediate details of the secret payment scandal, but today’s protest proved that RTÉ faces a reckoning from within that looms as large as any Oireachtas committee.
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