Media Minister Catherine Martin must come before the D\u00e1il and answer questions following the release of a damning statement by former RTE Chair Si\u00fan N\u00ed Raghallaigh, according to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy.<\/p>\n
Deputy Murphy, who is the deputy chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cMs N\u00ed Raghallaigh\u2019s damning statement raises a number of serious questions for the Minister, which urgently need to be clarified.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a start, Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh has suggested the Minister misrepresented her relationship with the former RT\u00c9 Chair at the Oireachtas Media Committee when she said she had \u201cmonthly meetings\u201d with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh, these meetings did not happen. In fact, she only had a \u201chandful\u201d of meetings with the Minister during her 15-month tenure as Chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is also a suggestion that the Minister misrepresented Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh\u2019s recollection of her phone call with the Minister\u2019s former secretary general, when the issue of Richard Collins’ exit package was raised.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister suggested Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh, in conversations with her officials in February, was unsure if she had mentioned the sign off from the remuneration committee when she spoke to the secretary general in October. Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh reiterates in her statement that she is certain that she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs N\u00ed Raghallaigh also states that, on the fateful day of the Minister\u2019s Prime Time appearance, a \u201cplan was afoot\u201d and the \u201cletter [issued by the Minister to the former chair) was being dictated by the upcoming Prime Time interview as anything surrounding clarification about the Collins\u2019 case\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, the Minister was cognisant she had a prominent media appearance that evening and issued the letter as some kind of prop to help her through it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs N\u00ed Raghallaigh also raises an important issue that has never been clarified by the Minister. Why did she only develop an interest in exit packages for senior RTE executives five months after they had been agreed and her Department notified of them?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only obvious conclusion is that those packages became an issue of public controversy in February and the Minister decided to throw the Chair under the bus to mask her own failings to keep on top of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a devastating critique, Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh bluntly states the Minister \u201cactively\u201d adopted a \u201chands-off approach\u201d while delegating responsibility to her officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat hands-off attitude \u2013 and delegation to Oireachtas Committees and various expert groups – has been obvious, even to outsiders, throughout this debacle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also extremely serious that vacancies on the RT\u00c9 board, which Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh brought to the Minister\u2019s attention as far back as August, were left unfilled. Particularly in circumstances where the organisation had lost its CFO and there was no person with financial expertise on the Board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister now has serious questions to answer about whether she misled an Oireachtas Committee in an effort to scapegoat Ms N\u00ed Raghallaigh and damage her reputation. The Minister must come before the D\u00e1il and answer questions as a matter of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ends<\/p>\n
4 March, 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Media Minister Catherine Martin must come before the D\u00e1il and answer questions following the release of a damning statement by former RTE Chair Si\u00fan N\u00ed Raghallaigh, according to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy. Deputy Murphy, who is the deputy chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: \u201cMs N\u00ed Raghallaigh\u2019s damning statement raises a number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catherine-murphy","category-news","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n