Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 October 2023

Public Accounts Committee

Appropriation and Expenditure of Public Moneys by RTÉ (Resumed): Discussion

9:30 am

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

All right. I return to the €150,000 payment Ryan Tubridy said at this committee he would furnish back. The former chief financial officer, Richard Collins, described it as a potentially fraudulent payment in that invoices were furnished and - we have it in the Grant Thornton report - that the invoices had the description "Consultancy Fees". It is evidenced there that: "'Consultancy Fees did not reflect the substance of the transactions [...] the Talent Agent did not provide consultancy; and ... the Talent did not provide consultancy." That was described as potentially fraudulent by the former chief financial officer, Richard Collins. At this point, as Ryan Tubridy is probably refusing to pay that money back because the renegotiated contract has fallen through, what outside actions has RTÉ taken to recoup that? Has it got further independent legal advice outside the cultural legal advice that is within RTÉ? Has it gone to the Garda about that potential fraud?

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