Varadkar says ‘enormous damage’ done to RTE over information delay

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the revelations of further RTE “barter” accounts as a “disquieting development”.

“It’s essential that public trust in RTE is restored following the revelations of the past few weeks and the Government has agreed to proposals for a root-and-branch examination of RTE,” he told the Dail.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions, Mr Varadkar said full transparency from RTE had been absent and he said that must change “immediately”.

He said the “drip feed” of information was doing “untold damage”.

“We absolutely understand that the erosion of confidence has done enormous damage and it’s imperative that full clarity around these and all issues is forthcoming without further delay,” he said.

Pressed by Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty on whether he believed there would be more resignations at the top of RTE, Mr Varadkar stressed that members of the executive board were entitled to due process.

He said it did currently retain confidence in the executive board, but he said he reserved the right to change that position as further issues arise.

Mr Doherty said RTE’s executives are “still giving selective information when it’s forced out of them”.

“They are not being upfront about all the facts, the revelations that we are hearing about are damning.”

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said RTE could “not get its story straight”.

She added: “If RTE screenwriters were writing the script of this as a drama, you could imagine that it might be rejected as being too far fetched.”

Mr Varadkar said it had to be established if RTE executives were deliberately misleading parliamentary committees or just providing information that turned out to be wrong.

He said barter accounts were used regularly within the media industry and there was no issue about that.

“It’s the misuse of barter accounts for secret payments, that’s the real issue here,” he added. “And certainly I didn’t become aware of this until the last couple of weeks and only found out last night that there were additional barter accounts.

“And I’m really bothered about that, quite frankly. I know the Tanaiste (Micheal Martin) is too, I spoke to him this morning and spoke to Minister (Catherine) Martin.

“So we’re not satisfied at all about the answers that we’ve been given by RTE to date, it is below the standards that you would expect, not just of people working in a public body, but of anyone working in any body, quite frankly. It is really not a satisfactory situation.

“There is a difference between giving incorrect information to a committee or the Dail, which many of us would have done, and actually lying. So I think that has to be established.”