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THE RTÉ BOARD has expressed “great disappointment and regret” over the resignation of its chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh, saying she was put in a position where she had “no other option”.
Ní Raghallaigh resigned shortly before 1am in the wake of a Prime Time interview with Media Minister Catherine Martin, who failed to express confidence in her as chair of the RTÉ board.
The minister said yesterday that she had been told twice that Ní Raghallaigh did not know about the details of Richard Collins’ exit package, but had learned in the course of the day that the Chair was in fact aware of them.
In her interview last night, Martin said that she was repeatedly “misinformed” by the chair on whether the board signed off on the exit package.
The minister said that Ní Raghallaigh assured her on Monday and Wednesday that the board had no involvement in approving exit payments made to a number of executives, but that yesterday morning, she was informed that the RTÉ board did play a role in signing off on Collins’s package.
His exit package went before the RTÉ remuneration board, which is chaired by Ní Raghallaigh.
A statement from the broadcaster’s board then pushed back on those comments from Martin, saying that her department had been informed about the process which led to Richard Collins’ departure on 10 October.
Martin has said today that her department had only been informed of the “process” regarding Collins’s departure and not that his exit package had been approved.
The remaining members of the board met this afternoon to discuss their response to the questions raised by the minister.
In a statement published this evening, the board’s members thanked Ní Raghallaigh for her time as chair and described her as “a person of the utmost integrity”.
“We thank Siún for her dedication, decency, diligence and above all for her unswerving commitment to RTÉ and to the future of public service media in Ireland.”
The board’s statement also expressed ”great disappointment and regret that she was placed in a position whereby she felt that she had no option but to resign”.
The board added that Ní Raghallaigh was responsible for “driving much needed governance reform and seeking to forge a more secure future for the organisation”.
The board also confirmed in its statement that it is “committed to continuing to discharge its duties” and said it is waiting to hear back from external advisory committees appointed by the Government regarding recommendations on reforms.
“A secure funding model for RTÉ and public service media must remain our shared collective objective,” the statement said.
The board said it has requested a meeting with Catherine Martin “at the earliest opportunity”.
The minister told RTÉ News this evening that she intends to meet with the board early next week.
This evening, Catherine Martin spoke to the media and said she was doing her best to manage the situation.
On the subject of Ní Raghallaigh’s late night resignation, Martin said: “I think it’s a shame to make any decision without talking it through in person face to face just like we did during the week.”
Asked whether she had spoken to Ms Ni Raghallaigh since her resignation, she said she had not.
The tumultuous events of the last 24 hours are latest episode in a series of damaging controversies that have plagued the national broadcaster since it emerged that star presenter Ryan Tubridy had received undisclosed payments last year.
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Chemical free glue???
@Ding Ding Denny: was just going to say, the glue is probably hydro carbon based
@Ding Ding Denny: You didn’t notice all the man-made fibre tents in the pictures? Yes the protesters are using the goods manufactured for the consumer of today, just like people flying to Climate Change conferences it is not hypocritical, if they can affect change the change they cause would far outweigh the damage they have done by using tents made of man-made fibre or chemical glues.
@Diarmuid Hunt: that’s a big if
@Stephen Brady: It is, can’t blame them for trying, sitting idly by definitely isn’t going to change anything.
@Diarmuid Hunt: But the tents are re-usable and last long term… that’s kind of the entire point.
Thats like you calling an environmental activist who reuses the same water bottle for 10 years a hypocrite
@Vin: I never called them hypocrites, I’m pointing out the stupidity of calling climate activists hypocrites for using modern technology as a means to an end, read past the first line of my comment.
@Ding Ding Denny: hopefully they didn’t use the oil derived glue but that made from animal parts. That way they’d be reducing carbon emissions.
Crusties! Well said Bojo!
Knew they were stuck up!
Bring in a JCB, sorted
A bunch of lunatics
@Gisbert Bayertz: The thing about this is when we’re presented with this message in a calm, rational manner, shown the science in a way we can understand, ideally with a voiceover by Sir David Attenborough. Then we’re sold, no need to do any more.
We’ll happily give up all our plastic packaging, we’ll recycle to our hearts content, we’ll clean our beaches and save our tiny animals and even our creepy crawly critters.
The problem begins with what we perceive to be the usual “rent a mob” telling us that we MUST do all the above, most of us will agree with Boris Johnston’s description of them as “unco-operative crusties”. We see the rich and famous like Emma Thompson who will make appearances at events like this, then think nothing of hopping on a plane to fly first class across the Atlantic. No weeks roughing it on a boat for them.
One protester walked out of a Sky interview when he kept insisting how much he cared about the planet and the people on it and wouldn’t stand by and do nothing. Sky’s Adam Boulton pointed out that parliament wasn’t even sitting so all they’d achieved was to cause disruption for everyone else.
It’s the perceived hypocrisy of a bunch of jumped up kids, each of them with the latest mobile phones and never far from a WiFi hotspot telling the rest of us what we have to do. The majority of those protestors will move on next year to protest again at the next virtuous, noble cause. They just happen to be right, this time.
@Arch Angel: Are you for real? Rational arguments backed up by science have been made for years and there hasn’t been enough change made. The reason you’re seeing radical protest is because there hasn’t been enough action on climate change.
@Diarmuid Hunt: I said we get it, I never claimed politicians get it.
@Arch Angel: I don’t know, I understand that you and I get it but I don’t think we speak for the entire populace. Awareness has definitely grown and is going in the right direction but I don’t think that it is as widespread as you think.
@Diarmuid Hunt: You have a point, in which case it may be fair to say those who are going to get the argument have already done so, some will never get it.
These protests by “unco-operative crusties” who seem to make a hobby of protesting from one virtuous cause to the next are doing very little to further their cause and only serve to antagonise people.
@Arch Angel: Possibly, from reading The Journal it does seem to be having a detrimental effect to their cause judging by the reactions of some people and the amount of likes they’re getting. Then again how good is The Journal comment section as a metre stick for the attitude around this? I know you point at the forever-protesters and there will be an element of that in any protest
, you have said that this time they are right, a stopped clock and all that, but some people will latch on to that side of things rather than look at the merits of this particular protest. Any protest should be weighed on its merit and not on whether forever-protesters are present.
@Arch Angel: except David Attenborough has been asking us for years to change and to listen to the scientists and you haven’t listened to him either so the rest of your point is moot.
Tents wont be up to much when they rip them back up.
Does using public money for personal pleasure get you arrested
A good bateing is required
@Michael Wynne: I hear you give a master bateing yourself.
have your say