Capping RTE salaries would help restore ‘community culture’ at broadcaster

It is unclear whether the Government intends to back a salary cap proposed in senator Ronan Mullen’s private member’s bill.

Calls have been made to cap salaries at RTE (Liam McBurney/PA) (PA Wire)

Capping salaries within RTE would restore a sense of community culture within the broadcaster, a senator has claimed.

Independent Ronan Mullen is pursuing a private member’s bill in Ireland’s Seanad that would seek to ensure the highest salary in RTE does not exceed that paid to the country’s media minister, 195,000 euro a year.

Mr Mullen said his legislative bid was timely given the furore that continues to engulf the public service broadcaster following revelations last month that it underreported the salary paid to star presenter Ryan Tubridy by 345,000 euro between 2017 to 2022.

The crisis has since widened amid further revelations about RTE’s internal financial, accounting and governance practices.

Many of the issues emerged when senior RTE executives were questioned at two parliamentary committees in Dublin last week.

Much of the focus has centred on the workings of a UK-based “barter” account used by RTE to pay for certain services and tickets and trips related to corporate client entertaining.

Mr Mullen’s proposals would also require that any RTE salary equivalent to the pay of a TD, 107,000 euro, would need to be made public.

It is unclear whether the Government intends to back the private member’s bill.

“I think this is very damaging to public confidence in the broadcaster,” Mr Mullen said of the current controversy.

“We’ve maybe focused too much on corporate values and not enough on community values.”

In an interview with RTE’s Morning Ireland programme, he added: “I think we need to just rediscover that sense of community culture and I think the corporate excess around some salaries has very been very damaging to that.”

Cabinet is expected sign off on terms of reference for a government commissioned external review into culture and governance at RTE when it meets on Tuesday.

Media minister Catherine Martin is also set to use powers under the Broadcasting Act to appoint a designated auditor to go in and examine RTE’s accounts.

On Sunday, Ms Martin insisted there were no proposals for staff redundancies or selling assets at RTE.

The statement from her spokesperson came following weekend media reports suggesting the Government was considering several significant cost cutting steps at the organisation.

On Monday, further newspaper reports suggested RTE was considering selling its studios in Cork.

In response, the broadcaster insisted it was “fully committed” to its operations in Cork but acknowledged the “suitability of the current building for the full range of RTE’s operations in Cork is being assessed”.

Ms Martin is also due to meet with chairwoman of the RTE board Siun Ni Raghallaigh and incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst in the coming days to discuss the external review.

Mr Bakhurst is planning to “reconstitute” the executive board once he takes up his post.

His predecessor as director general, Dee Forbes, quit last week amid the fallout from the scandal.

She had already been due to stand down in July, with Mr Bakhurst taking over.

The parliamentary media committee in Dublin has also invited former chairwoman of the RTE board Moya Doherty, ex director general Noel Curran, and former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe to answer TDs’ and senators’ questions on Wednesday.