Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 July 2023

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media

Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Noel Kelly:

No. On the question of who would benefit from this deal, obviously Renault was a major sponsor – I assume probably the biggest sponsor in RTÉ's portfolio. RTÉ obviously wanted to keep it on board. Who would benefit by having Ryan Tubridy doing roadshows for five years? Renault would, because the association would obviously continue for that five years and then I assume that RTÉ would keep Renault on as a sponsor. The relationship of RTÉ is with Renault, it is not with us. In relation to the actual contract, this started long before Covid really hit, which was 13 March 2020, when people had to work from home. This was well before that. On what I asked it to do, I never wanted RTÉ to underwrite this. This was always the relationship, with a separate agreement for Renault. What I wanted RTÉ to do applied in the event that there was a change of sponsor. There still is not a change of sponsor. Renault was always going to pay for this. If there was a change of sponsor, we would be a part of the agreement so that it would not be a case of "You have to do this" or "You have to do that".

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