RTE director-general Dee Forbes resigns after presenter payments row

Ms Forbes had been suspended from the position last week and was already due to step down from her role next month.

Dee Forbes has resigned from RTE (Niall Carson/PA) (PA Wire)

Dee Forbes, the suspended director-general of RTE, has resigned from the Irish national broadcaster, saying she is “ultimately responsible” following the scandal over undisclosed payments to star presenter Ryan Tubridy.

Ms Forbes was suspended from the position last week and was already due to step down from her role next month.

In a statement, Ms Forbes said: “I regret very much the upset and adverse publicity suffered by RTE, its staff and the unease created among the public in recent days.

“As director-general, I am the person ultimately accountable for what happens within the organisation and I take that responsibility seriously.

“I am tendering my resignation to RTE with immediate effect.”

Her resignation follows the revelation that Tubridy was paid several hundred thousand euro more than RTE had previously declared.

RTE apologised last week after admitting that between 2017 and 2022 former Late Late Show host Tubridy received a series of payments totalling 345,000 euro (£295,000) above his annual published salary.

Ms Forbes said she had consistently co-operated with the processes directed towards answering questions surrounding payments to Tubridy.

On the negotiations for the controversial payments, Ms Forbes said: “I did not at any stage act contrary to any advice.

“We were motivated purely by the need to find a solution to honour the contractual obligation.

“At all times, I and the representatives of RTE acted in good faith. I fully accept and acknowledge responsibility for my part in these events as director-general.”

Ms Forbes said RTE began discussions around the renewal of Tubridy’s contract in early 2020, which contained payments that had been negotiated and put in place prior to her arrival at the broadcaster.

RTE had committed to reducing fees paid to top talent by 15%.

I am deeply sorry for what has happened and my part in this episode and for that I apologise unreservedly to everyone.

Dee Forbes

“As director-general, I led the discussions with the agent for Ryan Tubridy together with other RTE senior executives.”

The agreement meant a commercial partner would enter into a separate commercial contract with Tubridy for 75,000 euro in exchange for the provision of three events annually.

RTE guaranteed and underwrote the payments.

She said the pandemic restrictions meant that the commitment to the commercial client could not be met in 2020 and 2021 and was only delivered in 2022.

“The commercial partner informed us that the commercial arrangement was not going to work for them in the long term. At this point, only one 75,000 euro payment had been made.

“Payment was sought for the 2021 and 2022 contractual commitments that now fell to RTE under the guarantee even though RTE had never expected to become liable for them and had not budgeted for them.

“Because of the commercial nature of the arrangement, it was decided to pay the invoices from the commercial barter account which was in credit.

“We were motivated purely by the need to find a solution to honour the contractual obligation.

“At all times, I and the representatives of RTE acted in good faith. I fully accept and acknowledge responsibility for my part in these events as director-general.

“This statement is directed to the events of 2020-2022. I understand from media reports and RTE’s statement that the board has raised questions concerning payments to Ryan Tubridy between 2017-2019.

“I have no knowledge of those payments and the board has not raised those questions with me.”

She later added: “I want to reiterate that I have engaged fully with the board during this process.

“However, the board has not treated me with anything approaching the levels of fairness, equity and respect that anyone should expect as an employee, a colleague or a person.

“All of this has had a very serious and ongoing impact on my health and wellbeing.

“I am deeply sorry for what has happened and my part in this episode and for that I apologise unreservedly to everyone.

“I care very deeply about RTE, the people who work for it, the public it serves, its mission, values, its unique position as a public service broadcaster and its reputation.

“I will continue to do so as RTE moves forward under the new director-general.”

A Government review of the RTE funding model has been ongoing but a final decision on the outcome has been paused pending the completion of an external review of governance and culture at the broadcaster, which was ordered at the weekend.

On Saturday, a senior executive emailed staff at RTE to apologise and inform them that new contracts have been paused pending the implementation of further oversight measures.

Following further weekend media scrutiny, in particular over its financial arrangements with advertising partners, RTE issued a statement on Sunday insisting it was legally compliant in respect of how it operates commission and volume discounts with media ad buying agencies.

Ireland’s media minister Catherine Martin announced the external review on Saturday after meeting the chairwoman of the RTE board, Siun Ni Raghallaigh, in Dublin.

Ms Martin warned that the scale of the issues facing RTE was verging on an “existential crisis” and a “root and branch” review was required.

Executives from the broadcaster have been invited to appear before two separate parliamentary committees in Dublin in the week ahead.

On Friday, Tubridy “apologised unreservedly” for not asking questions when RTE published incorrect figures for his earnings.

He said he would not be presenting his daily radio show on RTE Radio One this week.

On Saturday, interim deputy director general at RTE Adrian Lynch apologised to staff at the broadcaster.