RTÉ must not ‘kick can down the road’ on reform

The Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee has warned that RTÉ must implement changes quickly and not “kick the can down the road”.

A highly critical review of governance in RTÉ has blamed weaknesses in risk management and internal controls for the crisis at the broadcaster.

The wide-ranging report said these issues “directly contributed” to the failure to detect issues at the organisation.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, Brian Stanley said the public has “grown weary” of hearing about various scandals and poor governance at RTÉ.

“What we need to see now is the full implementation of the recommendations and the key players at the state broadcaster ensuring that it turns around ‘and faces a new direction’,” he said.

The Sinn Féin TD for Laois-Offaly said the issue of funding needs to be tackled next.

Mr Stanley added that any new funding model needs to be brought back under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The Review of Culture and Governance report recommended that RTÉ move to a more sustainable funding model, and that there is a review of legislation covering governance.

It also recommended that the Broadcasting Act is amended to appoint the Comptroller and Auditor General to examine RTÉ’s accounts, terms of reference are established for the board, and that RTÉ appoints a suitably qualified Group Secretary, Chief Risk Officer and a Head of Compliance.

The review was one of three reports into RTÉ published by Minister for Media Catherine Martin yesterday.

Two Government-commissioned reports – on governance and culture at RTÉ and on contractor fees and Human Resources – contain 116 recommendations regarding required changes at the national broadcaster.

The Government has accepted in principle all 116 recommendations and said RTÉ would be required to prepare an implementation plan within six weeks. The plan will be overseen by a Monitoring Group.

The third report by the auditing firm Mazars, examined RTÉ’s books and its controversial barter account.

That report found that for 2017-2021, RTÉ did not account for the trade credit balances held with media agencies, ranging from €243k at the end of 2017 to €572k in 2021.

Mazars found these balances were effectively maintained off-balance sheet during this period.

The scope of the audit was to identify and examine all transactions made through the barter account and any other off-balance sheet account from 2017 to 2022.