The new director general of Ireland’s national broadcaster has raised the prospect of selling off its headquarters in south Dublin in response to a furore over its own declarations about the pay of its top presenter.
Kevin Bakhurst, a former BBC and Ofcom executive, took up his role at RTÉ on Monday and began work by standing down the broadcaster’s executive board in an attempt to restore confidence.
In an interview on Wednesday, he said he would not rule out selling RTÉ’s headquarters in one of Dublin’s most valuable neighbourhoods as part of a radical overhaul of the organisation.
Bakhurst faces the daunting task of restoring the reputation of RTÉ after what he described as “shameful” revelations in recent weeks about the pay of Ryan Tubridy, the former host of The Late Late Show.
The saga began when RTÉ made a detailed statement on 22 June saying that it had understated payments made to the star by €345,000 (£295,000) over five years, including two years in the pandemic, prompting a parliamentary inquiry.
The revelations caused outrage and the broadcaster apologised for what it called a betrayal of public trust.
But on Tuesday, in the first full statement by Tubridy, the star attacked RTÉ for creating a “fog of confusion” that had left the public wrongly assuming that he had concealed payments, when he said he had not.
In a 12-minute statement made to a parliamentary committee, during which he banged the table for emphasis, he furiously reeled off “seven untruths” told about him, ranging from a claim that he had not in fact taken a pay cut in 2020 to suggestions he had concealed any payment or that he had quit The Late Late Show after he learned of an impending debacle about his pay.
He said the latter was “not remotely true” as he had made his decision to leave the long-running chatshow a year ago. He also told the committee members he had taken a pay cut in five-year 2020 contract that he said had cost him €525,000. He then rounded on RTÉ bosses, who he said had made him “the face of a national scandal, accused of being complicit, deceitful and dishonest”.
In an email to staff on Monday, Bakhurst said he was “appalled” by recent events at RTÉ and announced he was standing down the entire executive board. The day before, Rory Coveney, the brother of one of Ireland’s best-known politicians, Simon Coveney, announced he would be resigning from his role as RTÉ’s director of strategy. He said he had told Bakhurst he believed his job as director general would be easier if he had a “fresh lead team”.
Bakhurst, in an interview with the Irish Independent on Wednesday, said he could sell off RTÉ’s Montrose headquarters. “Everything has to be on the table,” he said.
He said that before the scandal broke he had been working on “exciting plans” for RTÉ that would make it a smaller and “more agile” broadcaster capable of surviving in the competitive digital age. He said he was “quite agnostic” about the licence fee versus an exchequer funding model, saying he was “always uncomfortable” with the criminalisation of those who failed to pay for their licence.
He vowed to introduce new criteria for salaries of the stations’ top stars, saying €250,000 a season for Patrick Kielty, Tubridy’s replacement on The Late Late Show, was “a good thing to measure salaries against”.
He also announced he was scrapping a flop musical based on a Christmas special version of The Late Late show for children, known as The Toy Show.
Tubridy told committee members on Tuesday that he expected to be back soon on RTÉ Radio, where he hosts a daily show.
