Results 1,081-1,100 of 1,871 for speaker:Marie Sherlock

Seanad: Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Bill 2023: Second Stage (29 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. The Labour Party very much supports the Bill and its intent. We have been awaiting it for quite some time. Its importance is evident when one considers how badly served groups of consumers in this country were for several decades, particularly in the context of insurance and banking. The issue of qualified entities came up in...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: The first thing is to thank all the witnesses who attended this hearing today. The crucial point of the hearing is that we understand more about the shambles that appears to be corporate governance within RTÉ, and that coming out of this, we would have a stronger RTÉ, a more transparent RTÉ and an RTÉ that has fairer working conditions. During the week we had...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: I have three sets of specific questions for Ms O 'Leary, for Mr. Collins and for Ms Ní Raghallaigh, but first I want to ask Mr. Shortt - as the staff member on the board - what he believes now needs to happen within RTÉ to move forward from this awful crisis that has engulfed the national broadcaster. What needs to happen to the executive? I am conscious that I have another set of...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: What needs to happen to the executive and within RTÉ to try to re-instil confidence in the public broadcaster and to reassure staff now that these issues are going to be comprehensively dealt with?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: I thank Mr. Shortt. As the commercial director, I must ask Ms O'Leary is it good enough that she cannot recall the detail of the invoices and that there was no paper trail within her office? This is particularly pertinent when we have learned from the Grant Thornton report that those invoices accounted for 70% of the value of the purchases going through the barter account in 2022. What...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: Is it exceptional then that Ms O'Leary would not even communicate with the chief financial officer if it is unusual for her role to be raising invoices at all?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: I think what we are hearing is a story of Chinese walls and that divisions are working in silos and not communicating with each other. It reflects an utter dysfunction as an executive if an unusual transaction has never been brought to the attention of the executive. If I picked him up correctly, the chief financial officer said a few minutes ago that the first he understood of these...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: Mr. Collins had no knowledge and no inkling whatsoever.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: There is an ambiguity to Mr. Collins's answer. We see from the Grant Thornton report that the barter account was previously outside of the financial statements but was brought into the balance sheet two years ago, if I understand correctly. How could it be the case that if the barter account was on the balance sheet for the past two years, he had no knowledge of these events last year, and...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: When did Mr. Collins know?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: Mr. Collins is saying that his department had no knowledge at all of this last year.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: But they did not feed them to Mr. Collins as chief financial officer.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: That raises serious questions about the operation of the finance department, if there was no follow-up to Mr. Collins if these were unusual transactions. I want to ask about the end of contract payments. To many RTÉ staff, the concept of out of contract payments for certain, though not all, individuals, and having to find a way to offset those is a real kick in the teeth. I want to...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: Who in RTÉ has end of contract payments as part of their contracts?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: Other than Ryan Tubridy.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: That is the only time there has been an end of contract clause.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: I have a question for the chair. I am conscious Ms Ní Raghallaigh is only in the role a few short months and she faces a gargantuan task to re-instill confidence in the national public broadcaster. Do she accept she is presiding over a dysfunctional executive?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: Okay.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: I would like to ask about the business model in RTÉ. On one side, there is somebody on a fixed-term contract who has to go through an arduous contract review group process to try to become a permanent employee. On the other is this opaque system for negotiating with "talent" in RTÉ. Does Ms Ní Raghallaigh believe that is the right model? It is important to say we have only...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Marie Sherlock: This is my final question. Given what Ms Ní Raghallaigh has said about effectively having a dysfunctional executive, which is why she is here today, what needs to happen now? Surely it is not just about a new DG being in place. I am concerned that there might be a witch-hunt against one particular individual. What systemic changes need to take place, to turn the ship around?