RTÉ’s incoming director general has said he faces a huge challenge to restore trust in the national broadcaster.
Kevin Bakhurst, who takes charge of the crisis-hit organisation on Monday, was commenting after meeting Media Minister Catherine Martin in Dublin.
RTE has been reeling since revelations last month that it under-reported the salary paid to star presenter Ryan Tubridy and failed to disclose €345,000 of additional payments to him between 2017 and 2022.
The furore has since widened amid further disclosures about RTÉ’s internal financial, accounting and governance practices.
Mr Bakhurst had already signalled an intent to reconstitute the executive board at RTÉ. On Thursday he said that process would begin on Monday.
Emerging from the meeting with Ms Martin, an encounter he described as “frank and very useful”, Mr Bakhurst told waiting reporters: “My job is to restore trust, clearly that’s been severely damaged.
“Again, I apologise for that. But that’s my job, to restore trust in this organisation.
“That’s what I’ll try to do. And I’ll be setting out a lot more detail on Monday about how we intend to do that.”
Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly have expressed a willingness to co-operate with two parliamentary committee probes into the payments and governance scandal at RTÉ.
A solicitor representing the men has written to both the Media Committee and Public Accounts Committee indicating a desire to clarify a number of matters and provide “important information”.
They are expected to give evidence to the committees next week.
Asked if he had confidence in the current RTÉ executive board, Mr Bakhurst said he would be making a more detailed statement on Monday. He said there were individuals involved and he needed to speak to them first.
“There are individuals involved here, I need to talk to them and also want to talk to staff before I come out and say something publicly and, for me, restoring the trust of the audience and of staff and of politicians in RTÉ is absolutely key to what we’re trying to do here,” he said.
He said trust in RTÉ had been “severely diminished”.
“It’s been a highly damaging two weeks for RTÉ and it’s been painful to watch,” he said. “But I’m looking forward to starting the job and trying to repair that.”
Mr Bakhurst also said he was concerned about the finances of RTÉ.
Commenting on the job he was walking into, he said: “It’s a huge challenge, it wasn’t quite the challenge that I thought I was taking on when I took on this job but it’s a challenge that I’ll do my absolute best to deliver it with the right team around me.”
Asked what his message was to licence fee payers who were contemplating not paying as a result of the scandal, Mr Bakhurst urged them to look at the actions and “what we’re trying to do to restore trust”.
He also praised how the news and current affairs arm of RTÉ had covered the story about its own organisation.
Chairwoman of RTÉ’s oversight board Siún Ní Raghallaigh also attended Thursday’s meeting with Ms Martin, as did interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch.
Commenting on staff sentiment at RTÉ, Mr Bakhurst said: “I fully recognise the morale is on the floor and my priority next week is to get around the organisation, my top priority is to go around the organisation and talk to staff and hear their concerns.
“Adrian (Lynch) and I have already been talking about trying to meet the unions possibly tomorrow, if they’re available. So we want to start this. I don’t start ‘til Monday, this is the most work I’ve done for no payment so far in my life in the last few weeks. But I’m happy to do it.”
Asked when his planned reconstitution of the executive board would commence, he replied: “It will start on Monday.”
He declined to comment on the revelation that a staff member at RTÉ had a car loaned to them for five years without approval – and only returned it this week.
He said there may be a “process” initiated around that issue. “If necessary there will be one, and I can’t talk about that any further at the moment, I’m sorry,” he said.
Mr Bakhurst said his job had “changed hugely” from the one he believed he was taking on when he was selected as the next director general.
He said the task of restoring trust now had to take precedence in the first instance over his wider vision to create a “forward-looking, digital-first, public service media organisation”.
“There’s no doubt my job has changed hugely, right,” he said.
Asked about RTÉ’s use of a commercial barter account, Mr Bakhurst said he was aware of a barter account that traded airtime from his previous stint at RTÉ.
Barter accounts are commonplace in the media industry. They allow organisations to exchange advertising airtime that would otherwise go unsold in return for goods and services from companies.
RTÉ’s use of barter spending has come in for intense scrutiny since it emerged that €150,000 was paid to Mr Tubridy through one such account, and that the payment was not properly declared.
The broadcaster, which is sustained through public funds and commercial revenues, has also faced criticism for using barter transactions to spend hundreds of thousands of euro entertaining commercial clients, including on a trip to the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
A series of further transactions was revealed on Wednesday, including almost €5,000 on 200 pairs of flip flops for a summer party for clients.
Former director general Dee Forbes quit last week amid the fallout from the undisclosed payments scandal.
She had originally been due to stand down this month, with experienced media executive Mr Bakhurst having already been announced as her successor.
