Chair of RTE board apologised for not sharing resignation update, says minister

Catherine Martin met with Siun Ni Raghallaigh in Dublin on Saturday.

Ireland’s media minister Catherine Martin says she has received an apology from the chair of RTE’s board over a failure to inform her she had asked the former director general to resign.

Chair Siun Ni Raghallaigh revealed on Wednesday that she had asked Dee Forbes to resign on June 16, almost a week before the misreported payments scandal broke.

Ms Ni Raghallaigh held a meeting with Ms Martin in Dublin last Saturday to discuss the furore arising from the public disclosure of the underreported payments.

RTE chair of the board Siun Ni Raghallaigh — RTE board chair Siun Ni Raghallaigh asked director general Dee Forbes to resign on June 16 (Brian Lawless/PA)

It has emerged that the minister was not informed during those discussions that the chair had asked Ms Forbes to quit. The director general had been suspended from her role at that point and went on to resign two days later, issuing a statement early on Monday morning.

Ms Martin, who has ordered an external review of governance and culture within RTE, was asked about the issue on a visit to Co Sligo on Thursday.

“When we met on Saturday we were really focused on trying to get to the bottom of the numbers, the figures behind it and thinking about that external review that I felt was needed and the governance issue,” she said.

“The chair Siun Ni Raghallaigh did ring me this morning and apologised for any disquiet caused because of that.

Dee Forbes resigned as director general of the broadcaster shortly after the payments controversy was made public (Niall Carson/PA)

“But it was really to do with that due process and individual’s rights. And I was informed as soon as the decision was taken to suspend, the suspension was put into place.”

The minister praised the chair for acting “so swiftly” in March when the issues around the payments were first detected by auditors.

But Ms Martin criticised the lack of clarity she felt came from senior RTE representatives who appeared before the Oireachtas parliament’s media committee on Wednesday.

“I felt yesterday there was a shocking failure of governance on display in everything that was said yesterday,” she said.

The minister added: “I would really appeal to them to bring clarity because part of the healing and rebuilding the trust is to get the answers that are needed.”

Ms Martin said she was in the final stages of putting together the terms of reference for the external review of RTE.