Results 3,481-3,500 of 3,797 for speaker:Ciarán Cannon

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Can we-----

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: You can understand the public's difficulty if an outgoing CFO said they very much were within the remit of her and her-----

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Have any of the barter accounts been used for personal staff remuneration?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: I refer to timelines. On 7 March, Deloitte contacted CFO, Richard Collins, about an issue on 7 March; on 8 March, the former DG, Dee Forbes, was informed there is an issue; on 17 March, the commercial director, Geraldine O'Leary, was contacted by Deloitte; on 21 March, Deloitte met the audit and risk committee, ARC; and sometime in April, Grant Thornton began its assessment or scrutiny.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: My apologies. While all of this is ongoing and there was knowledge across the organisation of a serious discrepancy from an accounting perspective, the board went ahead with its recruitment and appointment of Kevin Bakhurst as the incoming DG. It announced it on 18 April, despite a serious audit issue hanging over the outgoing DG, Dee Forbes, and RTÉ's highest-paid presenter just...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Can Ms Anne O’Leary recall when exactly Grant Thornton began that audit in April?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Can the committee see those terms of reference? Can they be made available to us?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: RTÉ, the entity, issued a statement last week that long-term agreements, LTAs, are not in breach of competition law. Did the witnesses seek legal advice on this before they made that statement and can we see it if they did?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Those rebates, I understand, are passed on based on the volume of spend a particular advertiser might have with RTÉ. Have rebates been made to the Government or any State agencies as a result of the very significant spend we would have accrued, particularly during the pandemic?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: They are funnelled through the agencies.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: It is not a concern of yours, to be honest. That is the way you see it. You make the rebate available to the agency and from then on, it is the agency's responsibility.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Finally, I refer to Soho House, which is an interesting expenditure item on the list of many expenditure items. It is an exclusive private members’ club in London. I have no issue, and I am sure the licence payers of Galway East have no issue, with a credible return on investment. One can argue that every investment Ms O’Leary made in terms of attracting and retaining...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Is it RTÉ's intention to retain that membership on an ongoing basis?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: I understand, Ms O’Leary does not know. Can I ask perhaps Mr. Lynch or Mr. Collins if it is RTÉ’s intention to retain that membership and does it see value in retaining that membership? One can have meetings in a hotel boardroom without having to retain an ongoing annual membership of one of the most exclusive clubs in London city.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Okay.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Why did Mr. Kelly agree to process a false invoice from RTÉ, which falsely described the service as rendered to a company that he had never heard of and not to the company he was seeking to provide the services to, namely, Renault? Why did he process that invoice, him being, one would assume, a responsible director of a long-standing company? In processing that false invoice, did he...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: What was-----

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: Okay. Can we stop there? Mr. Kelly has been touting that line all day long.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2023)

Ciarán Cannon: I lost my dad a long time ago but there is one line that I will never forget. When I would come home from school when I had been misbehaving with an excuse, for example, “Johnny next to me told me to do it”, his question always was “If Johnny told you to put your hand in the fire, would you put it in?” Mr. Kelly cannot suggest for a moment that a credible answer...