Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The public are sick and tired of debacle after debacle concerning RTÉ, and the Minister's hands-off approach is simply not working. I have listened back to interviews she has done, and time and again she has claimed such and such would be inappropriate for the Minister and said the Minister cannot go there. She is leaving it to members of the committees to ask questions she should be asking in the first instance, questions that do not come to her, and she says she knows nothing about that and that she does not want to stray into those matters. It is not acceptable.

The Minister's decision, after a hands-off approach, has plunged RTÉ into further crisis over what happened last Thursday. We now know from the questioning by the committee last night that she was aware Siún Ní Raghallaigh was threatening resignation in the event the Minister sent a letter criticising her. She had told the Minister's official that would amount to a vote of confidence from the Minister and that she would have to consider her position. The Minister sent the letter anyway. Not only did she ensure the chair would consider her position, as she had threatened to do, by not lifting up the phone, having a conversation with her or saying, "Siún, we're in the middle of a crisis here with RTÉ. Let’s straighten it out." She sent the letter anyway, knowing there was a threat of resignation. Worse than that, she drove out to RTÉ, which did not know about this story, and instructed her adviser to tell RTÉ about this story and to indicate she was willing to take questions. She went on air at the national broadcaster in what was tantamount to a public humiliation of a public servant who had served this State for many years, somebody who, as has been said, was in a part-time role receiving a fee that is paid to board members. It is reported she had actually waived her fee. The Minister went on air at the national broadcaster and made her statement, knowing the chair was threatening to resign anyway, and what she did, in effect, was ensure she would be pushed over the cliff. There is no other way.

Let us look at the Minister's defence that she did not know that question would come up. Nobody in this House would be so naive as to believe or to swallow that guff that a Minister was going on air to say somebody had misled them on two occasions without being asked whether they had confidence in that person. Nobody believes that. The second defence the Minister has is that she wanted to be honest and transparent, but she says that if had not been for the leaks and media queries earlier in the day, she would not have told “Prime Time” anything, so that does not stack up. Why did the Minister decide to end the tenure of somebody who was trying to reform RTÉ and instil corporate governance? She said it was because the chair had misled her in regard to the oversight of the remuneration board on two occasions - I accept that is not acceptable - but her Department had been told on at least three occasions.

Siún Ní Raghallaigh told the Department on 10 October. The remuneration committee met on 9 October and made a provisional decision and the minutes show that Ms Ní Raghallaigh was going to talk to the Department and the committee would confirm the decision the following morning, on 10 October, which is what happened. The PAC told the Department, with officials sitting there, on 26 October.

On 28 November, I am sure the Minister got this document. Did she get this document, the terms of reference? It is dated September 2023. She has told the public that there is no reference in that document to oversight of exit packages but there is; it is in clause H.

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