A FIANNA FÁIL senator whose questioning uncovered a car controversy involving Marty Morrisey said the presenter has been “thrown under the bus by RTÉ management”.
At the Oireachtas Media Committee hearing on Wednesday, Fianna Fáil senator Timmy Dooley asked RTÉ’s interim deputy director-general Adrian Lynch whether any personalities were in possession of a car as a result of being brand ambassadors for motoring companies.
Lynch revealed one RTÉ staff member had secured the loan of a car for five years and that the loan period was “not approved”.
Yesterday, Marty Morrissey confirmed that he was the staff member in question and apologised.
Lynch said the car was handed back on Tuesday – however Morrissey said he handed back the vehicle on 23 June.
This was the moment Senator Timmy Dooley pulled a Columbo to ask when a car on loan for five years to an RTÉ employee was returned. pic.twitter.com/yxp6O3ZQ3i
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) July 5, 2023
“As far as I was concerned, my use of the car was always a very ad hoc arrangement which did not affect my work with RTÉ,” said Morrisey.
“I wish to be clear that I have never had a car allowance from RTÉ,” he added.
“I have never been appointed a brand ambassador for Renault. There was no expectation or requirement that I publicly endorse or promote Renault on air, on social media or otherwise while I had the use of a car,” Morrisey said.
However, Dooley said he was “confused” that RTÉ “created a situation” for Morrisey.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dooley said: “The questions I was asking was, were there people in RTÉ who were getting a car allowance but didn’t even have a car or a driving licence?
“Were there brand ambassadors in RTÉ that were getting paid car allowances out of licence fees?
“The reality is that none of that applies to Marty Morrisey, but for some reason RTÉ management decided to create this notion about an individual who had a car loan etc, etc, creating a level of hype, and it required Marty then to effectively clarify the situation,” said Dooley.
“In his case, he’s not getting a car allowance so his situation didn’t relate to the question that was asked, and neither is he a car ambassador, so I’m sort of somewhat confused as to why RTÉ management decided to create a situation for Marty that required him to come out now and clarify the situation.”
Dooley added that Morrisey has been “pulled into this controversy unfairly and unnecessarily” as there is “no license fee or RTÉ money involved”.
“He (Morrissey) has identified the practice as being unwise; who amongst us haven’t done things that were unwise and with the benefit of hindsight, might have done things a little bit differently.
“But that of itself does not target the person as being responsible for what’s actually happening at management level within RTÉ,” said Dooley.
The Fianna Fáil senator also addressed the issue on Virgin Media’s The Tonight Show.
“I think he has been thrown under the bus to some extent by RTÉ management”
— TonightVMTV (@TonightVMTV) July 6, 2023
-@timmydooley on Marty Morrissey’s five-year car arrangement#TonightVMTV pic.twitter.com/u4lzdMYMmR
“What we were concerned about was that RTÉ was finding ways of evading the publication of what they are paying to staff,” said Dooley.
“The question I asked was, were there people who already had a car as car ambassadors getting car allowances?
“Were there people getting car allowances that didn’t even have a driver’s licence?
“The response that was given was, ‘oh yes, there is one’.
“But when you read Marty Morrissey’s statement, he wasn’t the subject of the question at all. I think he has been thrown under the bus to some extent by RTÉ management.”
Dooley also expressed concern that the “good headlines in the tabloids” would take away from the “central theme of the Noel Kelly situation”.
“RTÉ set about a series of events to effectively evade the publication of the payments of money to an individual, and then they’re throwing Marty Morrissey into the middle of this and there’s absolutely no connection.”
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