Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805727#Comment_121805727

It is a mess and there's going to be some panic trying to save Martin later today. She's just not ministerial material. At best she's county councillor level. Ni 'Raghallaigh's mention of the department being informed in October is a major problem because it makes Martin look clueless.

Regards...jmcc

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805731#Comment_121805731

But Martin says she asked twice this week about it and was told nothing agreed - how Martin got a ministerial post is beyond me to start with, has been utterly useless throughout this whole thing - why are teachers thought of as good ministers in this country, if anything they have proven to be the worst

Rubberchikken

The level of ineptitude is astounding.

I'll bet they're just hoping for some really big news thing to attempt to distract the public.

Honestly, does anyone see any of this actually being sorted? People actually being held accountable?

I don't.

kazamo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805508#Comment_121805508

Who in their right mind would take on a task like that ?. And no matter what they were paid to clean the mess, the Politicans would moan about the cost and the package paid to the fixer.

Just shut it down. After 8 months, there is no end in sight.

Karppi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805204#Comment_121805204

Well, she really has been totally ineffectual throughout.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805698#Comment_121805698

Martin was on TV last night , absolutely incapable

Floppybits

And another heads off into the sunset. I wonder will Suin now be unavailable to the Oireacthas committees now due to illness or something else?

Martin is a disaster but watch them try blame the civil servants. Is she worth saving for the government? Government could be in trouble between her and Varadkar being reported to Gardai over those donations and his SIPO statements.

NIMAN

Rte, the gift that keeps on giving.

quartz1

it’s just a Circus now. Rte Management are incapable of coming clean or sorting it out. The Government are even less capable of solving the issue . Every single member of both boards should be sidelined or got rid of and a fresh start ……. dissolve Rte and reconstitute it if necessary. Personally i have no issues with their News and Current Affairs section which is doing their best but every other section needs to be cleaned out. Two Produces given two additional jobs for producing the Musical ……. paid from the commercial arm of RTE and then claim an artist tax exemption …….. the place stinks

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805856#Comment_121805856

The best entertainment that RTE has produced in years. Unfortunately, we are all paying for it.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805851#Comment_121805851

She could be much more dangerous in an appearance before the committees as she has no RTE career to protect now. Some RTE board members and management could be dusting off their CVs later today.

Regards...jmcc

NIMAN

Is she the first big wig to actually walk away from Rte WITHOUT a big pay off?

hotmail.com

Eimear Cusack and Adrian Lynch are still there.

hotmail.com

Marie Sherlock says Catherine Martin is out of her depth.

I suspect Green voters aren't too impressed with the way Catherine Martin has gone about this. There was no need for that interview. She should have called the meeting last night and sacked her in private.

ShagNastii

Not one bit surprised. She really was the face of it all when the Tubs stuff came into the ether.

My feeling after seeing her appearances on the six.one and other media shows at the time was she clearly seemed like a deer in the highlights, well out of her depth.

Widdensushi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805899#Comment_121805899

She won't be walking empty handed,if they don't give her a lump sum she has a case to take about being told she was going to be sacked the next day by watching TV, what a mess,these ministers are paying their family and friends as "advisors/ assistants" surely one of them could have have said this isn't a good idea?

NIMAN

How's the cost saving going at the broke state broadcaster?

Any of the redundancies happened?

All I see is money being spent, nothing being saved.

Time to bring in one of those ruthless, outside consultants to do the job? Interview and ask every employee what they do, and decide if they are needed.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805944#Comment_121805944

Job losses rather than redundancies (meaning the position is being eliminated). They have to replace Ni Raghallaigh. At the moment, some of the other RTE management could be "exited" to use Bakhurst's term.

Regards...jmcc

_Kaiser_

This is a farce but not at all surprising.

It was clear from all the drama before the Committees previously that the entire setup was rotten and the way most of them have jumped ship since (with massive payouts), or how Forbes has never even appeared, just comes across as a big FU to not only the extremely weak Minister (but that's what happens when you elect one issue ideologues into Government), the Government itself, but also the taxpayer who is legally forced to pay a licence fee to pay for all this!

But there'll be no accountability, certainly no sanctions or prosecutions, and even if Martin resigns, so what? What will really change?

What's more, I would bet that RTE isn't the only semi-state or publicly funded organisation to be rife with similar issues. When there's no accountability or even competence in the oversight of such bodies, it just leaves it open for exploitation or just generally lax practices or waste - look at what we learned about the Gardai over the last decade for example, or the Irish Water mess etc, or even just what a pain it is to deal with organisations like utility companies or Welfare. Somewhat ironically, about the only one that does seem to be run properly and even helpfully (to the public) is Revenue!

I've said it before on this site over the years... We're a nation that admires the "cute hoor", that rails against any accountability and constantly looks for an "out" when it catches up with us, and when we're not enviously/resentfully watching what others around us are at or "getting away with", we're engaging in our own little bit of shenanigans (eg: even before all this came to light, license fee evasion was still a big issue) or wishing we had the neck to do the same things.

These things happen in politics and these organisations because they are staffed by us! We are incredibly immature, parochial and selfish as a people. Not everyone, but enough that it spits in the face of anyone who DOES (apparently stupidly) attempt to play by the rules and who only ever seem to be the ones who DO face consequences as a result.

It's probably worth a separate thread really - are the Irish capable of effective self-governance?

hotmail.com

Prime Time still has 2 presenters for a show that's on twice a week for 35 minutes and Morning Ireland still has about 15 different presenters.

So no change in RTE.

Cluedo Monopoly

Remind me, is this still a nothing burger?

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805964#Comment_121805964

Great post. The new politics we were promised was a smokescreen. Reform will never happen. Corruption is rife. We do seem to be flawed.

Viscount Aggro

News story in the Journal.ie ... Number of TV licences issued in January has risen. Positive news at last.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805750#Comment_121805750

If this is what has surfaced to date you can be absolutely certain there is a hell of a lot more financial irresponsibility and irregularities in that organisation.

The auditors are useless (same audit partner doing the FAI accounts if you can believe it), the consultants are overpaid, the board don't give a damn so long as they line their own pockets along the way, and the government department in charge is clueless.

realdanbreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805964#Comment_121805964

Sounds like you might like to go back under the boot of British governance or maybe become the 51st US state where two OAP' s are slugging it out to see who controls the country!

StrawbsM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753901#Comment_120753901

I hadn’t ventured into this thread since June last year as I was posting in the now closed thread. Pretty spot on summation of what’s gone on in the last eight months, cluedo 😂

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121806002#Comment_121806002

Ah the "fingers in ears" approach. That's one way to go I guess! Rather than face some self-examination and ask hard questions, let's just throw out lazy tropes about "de Brits" and "the Yanks" so we can continue on as usual.

Anyway, I've posed the question in a seperate thread so as not to derail this one, so feel free to join there.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805988#Comment_121805988

I would not be surprised if this is the DSP paying for the free OAP licences for the year or there are always more licence renewals in January.

bigroad

Their hoping for a snowball effect by announcing the good news licence lie.

Its the same as the electric car sales ya just cant believe the rubbish that comes out of the Irish media or government.

Karppi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805965#Comment_121805965

BBC Radio 4 Today programme has 5 core presenters. 2 on at a time, often with one on location in a different studio. M-F 0600 - 0900, Sat 0700 - 0900. Just saying.