Laois-Offaly TD Brian Stanley says that Ryan Tubridy and his agent, Noel Kelly are top of the list for the Public Accounts Committee.
Deputy Stanley was speaking ahead of RTÉ’s next appearance in front of the Public Accounts Committee, of which he is Chairman.
The Committee met earlier today to make arrangements for the upcoming appearances of Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly.
“We have a number of guests that we still have to speak to, and obviously top of my list for a week now, is Noel Kelly and Ryan Tubridy,” said Stanley in an interview with Ivan Yates on Newstalk today.
“We would have moved to compel them, but we welcome the fact that they have made an offer to come in,” Deputy Stanley said.
“We still want Dee Forbes (most recent former Director Genereal of RTÉ); we obviously want Jim Jennings (Managing Director of RTÉ). We also want the former Director General, Noel Curran; and the former Head of Finance Breda O’Keefe, whose opening statement yesterday was revealing, to say the least.”
Deputy Stanley said that Ms O’Keefe’s statements “opens up a whole new dimension” to the ongoing scandal.
“The tripartite deal that we now have a copy of, between Renault, RTÉ and Ryan Tubridy’s agent – there’s a pile of questions out of that,” Deputy Stanley said.
The Sinn Féin TD said it is important that both Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly provide the Committee with the prescribed documents in a timely manner, so there is ample opportunity to scrutinise the findings ahead of the Committee’s next meeting.
“Some of the statements, in terms of what Ryan Tubridy has said since this story broke; what may be revealed in that statement of their side of the story; and indeed the actual session before the Public Accounts Committee – there will be some interesting issues to tease out there,” Deputy Stanley said.
Speaking about the speculated rift between the RTÉ Board and the RTÉ Executive, the deputy described the gap between the two parties as being “as wide as the barn door.”
“It’s totally dysfunctional,” he said. “The fact that (Siún Ní Raghallaigh, Chair of the RTÉ Board) is taking legal advice; that she refused to express confidence in them (the RTÉ Executive).
“A company cannot operate if the board do not have confidence in the staff and the executives – if you don’t, you’re banjaxed.
“RTÉ, as it stands, that structure is banjaxed. Kevin Baxter is going in there in the next few days, and the very first thing that he and the Minister must do is fix that. And the only fix for that is that there’s a handful of senior executives that need to stand to one side.
When asked if he had confidence in Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltach, Sport and Media, Deputy Stanley said:
“I don’t want to pick out one particular Minister, but I have no confidence in the government as a Sinn Féin TD. But there are good people in the public service, people in there trying to do their best.
“But, my God, we really have to do better with the amount of public money that we spend and the return we get for it. And we have to get better at holding people accountable.”
The next meeting of the Public Accounts Committee is to be next Tuesday, June 11th at 11am.
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