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 Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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Breda O’Keeffe did not attend when invited to a previous Committee of Public Accounts session. She has never attended and has refused to attend this committee. She is a central figure. There are no two ways about it. All of the documentation shows that. We are trying to find out who knew what and when. I am using the documents sent to us by Mr. Kelly and Mr. Tubridy, which state:

To our surprise, Ms O’Keeffe told the committee last week that when she left RTÉ in March there was no support to provide that type of guarantee and no such guarantee was on offer. [But] she had written to us making exactly that offer one month earlier.

That is the 20 February document we have, which goes through it in great detail. Then we have the side letter from Dee Forbes on the agreement between Tuttle Productions Limited and RTÉ. That is March 2020. She did not turn up at the committee. Mr. Kelly's written statement notes it was not challenged by people and that he was surprised because:

on the 30th of June, 4 days before they appeared at the Media Committee - we wrote to RTE and highlighted the significance of Ms. O’Keeffe’s email.

Nobody disputed that.

Her email also cast new light on the contribution of Adrian Lynch, Deputy Director General... Mr. Lynch told the Committee agreement to ... underwrite the contract was given verbally on ...Zoom...

There are a lot of documents before that. Has Mr. Lynch reviewed those documents since they were provided by Mr. Tubridy and his agent?

Is Mr. Lynch's recollection now different to what it was then?