Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Sure, they were not. The RTÉ executive board's remuneration committee has defined terms of reference, and it failed completely to comply with them. This is why we are sitting around here today. How can you explain this gigantic failure? You were asleep at the wheel. You did not do your job, full stop. How you can maintain your positions is astonishing. We now know that between 2017 and 2021, the RTÉ remuneration committee failed to hold the minimum number of meetings as required under its own corporate governance. You failed to honour your own corporate governance. There was no mention of this failure in notes or the organisation's annual report, which you refer to now. The minutes of the meetings that did take place were not even circulated to the executive board. You were asleep at the wheel. You might as well have stayed away. You, in a cavalier manner, allowed them to run amok. Why did the executive board not request the minutes of the remuneration committee? This is clearly a failure of RTÉ's executive board to perform its functions and role. Would you agree with that? I have also called for criminal investigation into the actions and conduct of the senior executives of RTÉ in clearing the outgoing DG while a crisis is deepening and there are revelations of secret payments worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of euro.

This is shocking. I am asking, would you as chair, the board members and the chief financial officer welcome a criminal inquiry? Would you have any objection to such an inquiry? I believe nothing other than the fraud squad will suffice. We could and will be here for meetings for weeks and weeks. The public is aghast, and you barefacedly just tell us what you feel like telling us, and misunderstand our accents and God knows what else. You take us for fools, with that slush fund out there. If the Minister gets the courage, and she must, to send in the fraud squad, will you co-operate and will you welcome it?