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IN THE END, it was Marty Morrissey.
As RTÉ made public various items of expenditure (hereafter referred to as jollies) and gaps in their commercial deal oversight this week, it came to light that a certain staff member had the use of a Renault car for five years before returning it shortly before this week’s Oireachtas Media Committee.
Heartbreakingly, GAA presenter and commentator Morrissey revealed the Renault bandit was none other than he. It was a bitter pill to swallow, amid a rake of many other bemusing and confusing pills. Rubbery, flip-flop textured pills.
It should tell us quite a lot that Senator Timmy Dooley, who raised the question in a Columbo-style ‘one more thing’ gambit before the session’s comfort break, has since gone out of his way to clarify that he did not have Morrissey in mind when asking the question.
“The reality is that the questions I asked clearly didn’t even relate to Marty Morrissey’s case,” Dooley said on Morning Ireland, pointing out that Marty dropped the car back the week previous and that his other questions related to a person who didn’t have a licence, which is not the case for Morrissey.
“For some reason RTÉ management decided to create this notion about an individual who had a car loan, creating a level of hype.”
RTÉ management can be blamed for a lot, but neither Dooley nor any of the Oireachtas members can say they have not leaned fulsomely into the hype created by the secret payment scandal.
A thorough examination of RTÉ’s many jollies means that we might learn things we don’t like about even the most popular presenters. Read into this what you will, but it seems as though there is less outrage directed at Morrissey than had the car been on loan to, say, Ryan Tubridy or an executive board member.
This is not particularly hard to explain. A five-year unauthorised car loan for a well-loved media personality who has been a consistent performer for 30 years may be indicative of a culture of poor corporate governance, but it doesn’t hold much weight against €5,000 spent on 200 pairs of flip-flops, renewing a costly membership at an exclusive London club in the midst of a pandemic lockdown, or €2.2 million lost on a musical that mystified the public from the word go.
€8,000 per annum is now being spent on storing the set of Toy Show The Musical. According to RTÉ Director of Strategy Rory Coveney (yes, Simon’s brother), this is until they “figure out what to do with it”. A man with a plan.
In the context of IRFU season tickets, trips to Japan, and whatever you’re having yourself, Morrissey’s offence is down the lower end of the jolly scale. It is impossible to ignore, however, that favourable deals for “top talent” have been endemic at RTÉ at a time when ordinary workers at the broadcaster have been put to the pin of their collar.
A wage bill of over €15 million for 100 employees out of an overall staff of around 1,800 is painful reading for some, and each fresh revelation seems to suggest it’s jollies all the way down.
This was the moment Senator Timmy Dooley pulled a Columbo to ask when a car on loan for five years to an RTÉ employee was returned. pic.twitter.com/yxp6O3ZQ3i
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) July 5, 2023
And yet, despite their best efforts, RTÉ do not currently have a monopoly on crazy purchases made by major Irish media organisations.
The week had been trucking along as expected: more Oireachtas humiliation, the promise of a Tubridy marathon next week, the Marty Morrissey mystery… And then Newstalk bought a gun.
In an experiment designed to demonstrate Meta’s lack of oversight over their Facebook Marketplace, Newstalk journalist Jess Kelly used the platform to buy a gun, a real life gun, that arrived to Marconi House in a plastic bag.
Kelly and Newstalk promptly called the guards to notify them that the .22 calibre was in their possession, and the Gardaí took it away to examine it, before any of their presenters had the chance to open their shows by firing a few rounds into the ceiling.
The secondary takeaway from this exercise appears to be that Newstalk are prepared to procure a gun at any time. Do we applaud? Do we cower? Does a gun count as a jolly?
I have asked, by the way, and The Journal will not let me have a gun. They told me it would be “bad for morale” and that I’m “on thin ice as it is”.
Evidently, they are not taking seriously enough this panel of AI humanoid monsters that addressed the UN on Friday to tell us all they can run the world better than we can. When those robots start writing columns you better believe I’ll be defending myself by any means necessary.
In more heartening news, Friday saw a demonstration of hundreds in Cork, gathered in solidarity with library workers who face harassment from far-right groups.
Throughout the year, library staff have faced disruption from agitators seeking to remove books from the library listings, and the show of support organised by Fórsa for library workers was a rare moment of hope in a week marked by scammers, RTÉ disclosures, and Newstalk buying a gun.
For now, we look ahead to next Tuesday’s Tubridy marathon where the man at the centre of the secret payment scandal will appear before two Oireachtas Committees for a total of six hours alongside his pinstripey agent Noel Kelly.
RTÉ could do worse than taking the Toy Show set out of storage and putting together a musical based on the events of the last few weeks. I will personally take charge of it, and I am prepared to guarantee it will lose at least marginally less than €2.2 million.
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I think the judge said it all yesterday when he had 150 people before him in court for non paying licence fee. He really stuck it to RTE. still at the same time he had to do his job. Point he made was people have their backs to the wall, struggling with cost of living, and the Elite in RTE giving two fingers to them. I personally think this new DG will get a bigger rug and try to brush this mess under it. By the way, who actually hired this guy. Where was the job advertised.
@Dave Barrett: The Judge basically gave them all the absolute minumum fines and no convictions if in attendence. He is on a work to rule atm in regards to licence fee avoidance.
Fair play to him.
I’m not entirely convinced that Marty was the person who had the car for 5 years that the board was speaking about. The impression I got was that a staff member had the use of a pool car for 5 years without anyone questioning it. There’s no question that what Marty did was wrong but I won’t be at all surprised if others are uncovered.
@karen delaney: why was Marty wrong again?
@Gary Sheahan: That’s what I’m trying to figure out all week. He was given a loan of a car. Not a company ambassador, no promoting the car, just a loan. If a friend had given him a loan of a car, would that be any different?
He was driving around in a Renault car was that not promoting the brand
@Margaret Deacon: so what?
@Margaret Deacon: If you wanted somebody to be driving/ promoting your car would Marty Morrissey be the first one you’d think of?
How many cars do you think they sold on the basis of this?
@Gary Sheahan: it’s not the crime of the century what Marty did, but he took a car in lieu of cash payment. There are tax implications for him, but it’s not the big story here. Anyway, the man himself apologised, so he thought he had done wrong.
@karen delaney: That’s what the article says.
@Gary Sheahan: Benefit in kind – undeclared which means fraud.
He should be fined AND pay all bik taxes to cover the YEARS he had a “loan” of a car he was not paying for. That’s the rule that applies to the rest of us – why should he have special privileges?
@: if your ‘friend’ is your employer and they give you something of value, you legally must pay tax on it. I know he’s your precious GAA lad but c’mon. Tax fraud isn’t something you should justify because a criminal is popular.
Why are the Irish so amoral?
Fully support the principle of public service broadcasting. In some ways, it’s probably more important than its ever been.
But RTE ? I despise it and always have. The last couple of weeks have only confirmed that the Donnybrook Dinosaur is no longer fit for purpose ( not that it ever was )
A corrupt organisation that needs dismantling
RTE have no shame,
What a brilliant article. So nicely put.
@Louise Langton: I don’t agree that it’s a brilliant article. It’s equating what Marty Morrissey did by accepting a car from Renault with the rotten deal RTE did with Ryan Tubridy. Marty’s arrangement had nothing to do with RTE but RTE management threw it into the pot as a total distraction from their incompetence and underhanded cheating towards their general staff
@Winklepicker: it’s actually not equating the two, it clearly says the opposite in the article
@Winklepicker: If you read the article I thing you’ll find the author goes to great lengths to exonerate Marty Morrisey in this whole debacle.
@Winklepicker: you’re defending fraud. Morrissey was given thousands of tax dollars, paid no BIK and only returned it when he realised he was about to be publicly outted.
If he was jobless you’d probably support locking him up.. But he does the GAA so who cares?
It’s no wonder nothing works in this country.
@Winklepicker: Tubridy ripped off taxpayers using his bulldog agent.
Marty ripped off taxpayers by not paying his benefit in kind while enjoying a free car for YEARS…. Liking someone is not a reason to ignore the law.
I can’t stand the sight of him personally – he hurts my eyes and my ears every time I see him on TV.
Dreadful listening to RTE. They take a theme in the morning and drag it through each programme during the day. Each one of Kelly’s charges, carefully promoting the other.
It is called sensationalism. The shoe ( or flip, flop) is on the other foot now.
Joe Duffy ( a Kelly protogee) as the arch sensationalist, should have recused himself, as a professional from any comment on the affair.
@Appaddy: Duffy’s big idea, when a listener phone in and suggested that Tubridy return the money to the RTE coffers, was to suggest the money be donated to Charity. Good man Joe, spread our money around, theres more coming and if we don’t pay we’re criminals who get sent to jail. You couldn’t make it up.
It’s only taxpayers money – so nobody in authority cares.
Joe Duffy a talent haha imagine him being on radio in the South with his dublin accent no one listens to him rte is a dub station always has been
@john mac: I’m a Dub and I only on occasions such as these tune in with much glee when they fck up.
It’s a great wee country.
Marty. The Christmas Panto.
Oh Yes you did.
Oh No I didn’t.
#Look at them yo yo’s on RTE#
#Money for nothing and flip flops for free# (Apologies to Dire Straits).
Timmy ‘Columbo’ Dooley realised that he might have greatly upset the whole of County Clare by exposing their Idol as a mere trough slurper and he quickly tried to undo the damage to his future electoral chances. Marty meanwhile will deputise for Tubridy this week and carry on regardless leaving Timmy with a plan to Repair the Damage and Restore Trust.
How the fluck has rte got 1800 employees and all the show is cooking programs
@Pj Browne: Well they have to send somebody to Fallon and Byrne to buy the ingredients, another to wash up afterwards….
Marty’s mistake is serious.
But nowhere near Tubridy’s sly, sleeveen way of “not doing his bit”
Dooley has ‘ratted’ out his Clare countyman and is flat out practically begging Forgiveness.
His chance of being re-elected have now taken a complete nosedive.
Exposing Marty won’t be forgotten or forgiven by people of Clare.
Excellent blog by Patrick E Walsh on substack showing how millions of tax payer money was used to promote covid information on the radio.
Shut down the economy, starve media of vital advertising revenue.
Use tax payer money instead to save media industry, as long as they stick to the narrative.
Simple and effective. Safe and effective. We are paying to be brain washed. And we will be happy about it.
@p m: Yes. You will pay. You will be happy.
Morrissey needs to go.. him and others are well past their sell by date .the have creamed enough
I’m.shocked that people are so shocked.
Surely we all knew this was happening?
Just for any thicko who doesn’t understand ignorance of the law is no defence when dealing with revenue, tubridy and Morrissey need to understand this
Good job Carl! It’s great to make light of endemic corruption and fraud. Hahaha.
A servile media will ensure we have many more generations of highway robbery by our state broadcaster.
A wonderful piece on the nonsense of the last week, @TVsCarlKinsella!!
@Paul Furey, ah you’re back!!! Missed you and your conspiracy theory rants. No doubt you spent your ban time doing your own research aided by Andrew Tait, Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan.
I look forward to your enlightening views on how we’re all being duped by MSM, Klaus Schwab and the WEF replacement plan.
@Schrodingers Immigrant: maybe you are the one being duped. You come across as arrogant sometimes, belittling ‘low IQ’ journal commentators, yet you don’t have a good grasp of the issues yourself….eg your understanding of inflation and economic theory is flawed in my view. But it’s ok to hold different views, debate is healthy, we all might learn something……that’s my philosophy, if my view can be shown to wrong, then I have will make progress by learning from others.
To understand why Ireland is the way it is, simply look at the response to this scandal.
Way too many people are happy to defend tax fraud – and make up silly nonsense as part of that effort.
Way to many other people think the solution to this is lying to the TV license people.
Why WOULDN’T politicians and celebrities endlessly rip the country off? Who’s judging them? Liars and people who justify criminality?
Reply to P.M. – I don’t think calling out grifters and shysters like Tate, Peterson and Rogan is ” arrogance ” on the part of Schrödinger’s Immigrant.
And Tate in particular is a grotesque and sinister individual, currently in custody charged with sex-trafficking, amongst other things.
If we look deeper into how the RTE spending and payments debacle it would lead us into the whole lack of respect and oversight on the spending of tax payers money by the civil and public service as a whole. The ludicrously high wages salaries paid to management of State bodies in comparison to the hard working staff, the HSE is an example.
The farcical situation of the NCH, how had this been allowed to happen?
We allowed it to happen. We voted in incompetents, and the real decision makers, the senior civil servants, the ones on massive salaries and pensions pull their strings are totally immune from any consequences.
@p m – You do a good enough job belittling your own IQ, you don’t need me for that.
Another lad who gets sucked into anything that suggests the entire global system is a big conspiracy to dupe the world and only the enlightened few with a YouTube channel know what’s really happening.
My favourite of your theories is the one where you say that things going up in price isn’t inflation.
Niiice.
@Schrodingers Immigrant: We support this message.
It’s not like he has little money to pay his way…..I suppose Marty Morrissey wants everything he can get for free…..a very human trait, he is greedy…….
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