Results 1,541-1,560 of 15,510 for speaker:Brendan Griffin

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: I welcome all our witnesses today. I will begin by posing a question to the Minister. I presume she has seen all the previous hearings we had with the RTÉ board and that she has been following them all. I know they were 20 hours of our lives that we will never get back. However, the Minister saw the questioning, the responses and glaring failures in corporate governance that were...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: The public does not have confidence in the people who were before the committee, due to the questions they answered, how they answered them, and the glaring failures that were there. Does the Minister see where there was a problem? If the Government is going to now bail out RTÉ, the public is looking at their money going into this organisation where there were clearly huge failings in...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Does the Minister think that the team that has failed to date should be left in place? That is the point I am making. They have clearly failed on a number of fronts. The remuneration committee, for example, did not meet. There was the issue of the audit and risk committee. There were really poor governance standards. Should that team be left in place? Does the public not deserve a...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Even as recently as three weeks ago when the RTÉ board and some executive members were before the committee, I asked a question about a movie show that was produced a number of years ago. I asked the assistant director general why the documents that were provided to this committee had been so heavily redacted. I asked if he was involved in that process and he was, even though he was...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: That is the point I am getting to. I do not think the public are prepared to move forward until they are confident that their money will be overseen correctly. That is the problem. That is what people are saying to me in my constituency and to Senator Ahearn in his constituency. The public have seen enough of these hearings. They feel there needs to be a radical change in personnel,...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Should the changes happen before the money is handed over? That is what I am saying. I think that is what should happen. The changes should happen before the Government-----

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: I am asking the Minister, before the State gives any more money to RTÉ, if she think the obvious changes need to be made. The board failed. There was board capture. Should the Minister not take the initiative and change the personnel, because they failed? The public need confidence in terms of where their money is going and that it is being spent properly.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Yet, much of that board is made up of people who were also there when all this was happening, and they did not spot it. Can I ask the Minister about last March? What was the precise sequence of events when she was informed of difficulties and issues in RTÉ?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Does the Minister feel that the committee should have been informed at that stage of these issues? The chair was at the committee on 19 April and there was no mention of Grant Thornton or any of these issues on that day.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Prior to March, before this came to the Minister's attention, how often did she meet the chair - both Ms Ní Raghallaigh and the former chair, Ms Doherty?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: What was the nature of the discussions, typically?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Did the Minister ever express concerns about salaries in RTÉ at the stage?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: When RTÉ came looking for money and it pays these astronomical wages to "top talent" - it is a terrible term - would Deputy Martin, as the representative of the people and as the Minister, not have questioned RTÉ about that?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Did the Minister discuss with the chair the importance of the Oireachtas being able to question key people in the organisation and the need to avoid dismissal prior to the Oireachtas being able to establish the full facts?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: Does the Minister believe that the board was wrong to dismiss the former director general before the Oireachtas had an opportunity to ask her questions? This dismissal occurred after we publicly expressed our interest in asking the same person questions.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: The board sought her resignation, as was established in this committee.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Brendan Griffin: I wish her a speedy recovery. Not being in situin the post which she previously held makes it difficult for this committee to ever establish those facts. That is a result of the board's actions.