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

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,504 ✭✭✭Viscount Aggro


    Who's the female that looks like Woody Allen with a wig.. is it the CFO ?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,466 ✭✭✭✭Brendan Bendar


    Terence….. not a good look I’m afraid….. bang of Johnny Ronan about him…… not what’s needed in RTE. based on first impressions.

    I could be wrong though.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,914 ✭✭✭Caquas


    If the Department did not regard the matter as closed, they have a bizarre way of conducting their business.

    She informed the Department about the exit packages back in October. No questions or issues were raised at that time or subsequently until, out of the blue and without prior notice at the end of meetings in mid-February, the Minister asked her about the Collins package. Siún responded off the top of her head and, when she realised that she had given the wrong information, she phoned the Secretary General the following day to clarify. She admits she was wrong but it was a simple memory lapse, she had no reason to mislead the Minister and she clarified the matter quickly.

    In no way should this be a hanging offence for the Chair of a State Board.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,507 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    Yeah former CFO

    She was going with the formal Wonka Jonny Deep look like Forbes and Moya but she can't pull it off.


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 923 ✭✭✭csirl


    The organisation putting confidentiality clauses in exit agreements in a public sector organidation is a 'hanging offence' for the chair in my opinion. Especially given RTEs recent history.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,507 ✭✭✭RoTelly


    same could be said of the DG.

    IMO RTÉ have made some strange decision in the last 8 months.

    • Pretending IMO that Collins and Coveney had left on their own accord unwilling to answer if they receive an exit payment (Just read the Coveney press statement https://about.rte.ie/2023/07/09/rory-coveney-announces-resignation-from-rte/)
    • Publishing legal letters saying why they could not breach confidentiality, but not releasing any information as to what legal implications may befall RTÉ should they fire both for gross misconduct, other than to say it very difficult to fire someone in Ireland this isn't America (as if to suggest you can't fire someone).
    • Moving Robert Shortt to the position of Company Secretary a man who sat on the board during years of mis-governance and who's only contribution in the Oirechtas was to get angry at a politician for suggestion it might be better to buy a round of drinks in your local put with 160euro.
    • Keeping Eimear Cusack on the leadership team, could the DG not have said look we think your important in HR but your position on the leadership team won't be part of that role.
    • Giving Adrian Lynch a nominal promotion to Deputy DG (why is this role required?)
    • Suggesting that savings will be made by the departure of Coveny due to the role being made redundant but at the same time splitting Paula Mullooly's role between 2 people.
    • Getting the same PR firm that help try to spread the good word on Toy Show the Musical (q4pr) to help with PR at a cost of 70k in six months.


    ______

    Just one more thing .... when did they return that car

    Yesterday



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,642 ✭✭✭tom23


    No strange decisions there. they just protected themselves to the hilt and made sure everyone was sorted. Personifies this country.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,466 ✭✭✭✭Brendan Bendar


    Strange decisions for properly run companies…

    Not strange for RTE.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,435 ✭✭✭✭hotmail.com


    Still no comment from Breda O'Keefe and no sign she's going to pay any of her ludicrous exit payment back.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,260 ✭✭✭Damien360


    It may be morally wrong to take that money but you can bet it's clear legally. Existing practice or normal practice gets around any legal issues. Bit like "he got it so why can't I ?".



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,435 ✭✭✭✭hotmail.com


    So two fingers to the nation really. What a woman she is.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,260 ✭✭✭Damien360


    No different to any of the others in RTE. So many questions on governance and accounting in there. Imagine an accountant that routinely rounds down payouts ? You couldn't make it up.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,914 ✭✭✭Caquas


    Shifting the goalposts.

    These confidentiality clauses are fairly standard business practice and we see the HSE used them even more generously. No one in Government objected until the media took notice.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,789 ✭✭✭Karppi


    There are so many with their trotters and snouts in the trough. It needs to stop, but how?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,466 ✭✭✭✭Brendan Bendar


    Get someone with a good strong nutbag who is not part of the Monkstown set.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,251 ✭✭✭Rubberchikken


    I would have liked to see an end to this exit package crap.

    Yes retire by all means and take your final salary payment and your retirement fund/pot and then go gently into the night.

    Stop this topping up pensions. You earned enough over the years to put enought away for your old age.

    Others, many others, manage. Why not these shysters.

    The level of greed in people who I would imagine have.more than enough is sickening.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,090 ✭✭✭skimpydoo


    Post edited by skimpydoo on


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,125 ✭✭✭yagan


    She was not sacked, she flounced.

    That was petulant, but not surprising given the "because we're worth it" culture of rte.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,331 ✭✭✭✭Ash.J.Williams


    Rte top presenters wages were a like a price fixing cartel to keep themselves up there, we now know since Tubridy got a normal job that nobody on the radio is worth more than 100k



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,914 ✭✭✭Caquas


    Nonsense. Even the Minister does not pretend that Siún could stay on after the Minister pointedly refused to express confidence in her on RTÉ’s flagship programme.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 938 ✭✭✭Baba Yaga


    i doubt it...id say theyll give it a few weeks,make couple of statments like "going forward" "transparency" and saving the best for last "lessons have been learned" then stick the noses in the trough like the rest...

    yo! donnie vonredactedpants,vlad putin,benji netanyahu,vic orban..you sirs are the skidmarks on the jocks of humanity!!!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 843 ✭✭✭kazamo


    No fan of Breda at all, but I think to expect any money back is a bit fanciful.

    We have had bank collapses, regulators asleep, senior Politicans comatose, and yet when any of them departed the scene, they kept their ill gotten gains.

    We as a nation don’t demand accountability but we expect Breda to set the precedent ?

    Would be difficult to expect standards now.



  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,017 Mod ✭✭✭✭yoyo


    TV license letter arrived this morning straight into the bin! Some cheek of them to be demanding money with all this going on. I know ultimately I will probably have to fork out on it, but I'm furious 😡



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 843 ✭✭✭kazamo


    In my opinion, the picture of the 12 members of PAC holding up the reports, cheapens the process to political opportunism to raise their profiles.

    If the lead recommendation of any investigation is that someone else should investigate RTE (C&AG) then was it just a pass the parcel exercise ?

    Other recommendations are “we would like RTE” makes this seem like a lot of smoke, but very little fire.


    The new exit package condition is interesting

     “that it be a condition of any exit agreement that the former employee must cooperate with any internal or external inquiries or investigations, including Oireachtas committees, and that such agreements align with the observations of the C&AG’s Special Report 91: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies158 .”


    We heard a lot from committee members about fraud and why wasn’t it reported. Strange that they feel differently now. Maybe paying someone off the books via a third party is not an issue, and I find that prospect deeply disturbing.

    Yes, both committees uncovered things, but they also ensured future unavailability of key players and some of the players got nice cheques on the way out the door.

    I hope the other committee produces a lot more.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,125 ✭✭✭yagan


    Theres a whole whiff of untouchables coming off the rte indignants, reminds me a lot of the bishops expressing frustration at being exposed.

    I think Dermot Ahern's blasphemy law was an attempt to stifle general anti pedo peddler discontent.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,563 ✭✭✭jmcc




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 917 ✭✭✭DrZeuss


    I'm inclined to agree with Siún on her view of CM's hands off approach, 15 meetings in 15 months with a gap of 11 weeks between 2 at one stage. All this when there should have been so much more scrutiny on RTE considering their precarious situation.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,563 ✭✭✭jmcc


    Some of this stuff that should have been done is completely obvious to anyone with business experience. The problem is that Martin is just a teacher/TD. She was ultimately in charge of a highly dysfunctional organisation run by a bunch of people who seemed to have their own financial interests uppermost. She was simply out of her depth. She also delegated a lot of responsibiity to her department staff who don't really seem to have helped the situation. As Ronald Reagan once said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.".

    Regards...jmcc



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,223 ✭✭✭fuzzy dunlop


    The problem is the lack of corporate governance which as you said is obvious to anyone with business experience. And by lack of it I mean there seems to be none at all. And by business experience I mean basic rudimentary level knowledge. I worked in tech companies in Ireland where the only people who didn't receive some form of CG training were the cleaners and canteen workers and I wouldn't be surprised if even they received some. This largely came in the wake of Enron and other corporate scandals in the US that had global reverberations. There is probably hundreds of thousands, perhaps even most of the workforce by now who understand things like 'conflicts of interest' and the need for corporate governance structures. RTE has accountants! I do not believe for one second that all of this was going on without somebody calling foul.Therefore the people responsible either couldn't or wouldn't speak up.

    But on the other hand if their content is anything to go but then it is obvious that they are stuck in the 90s and early noughties with regard to their attitude to the Irish public. Take for example when Leo Varadker came out publicly as Gay. It was a complete non story and nobody gave a f@k yet it was treated by our media, in particular RTE as something groundbreaking by boosterism. Or Maria Walsh, a winning 'rose of Tralee'. I split my sides laughing in my friends house when his father and mother in law (80 years of age at the time) started telling me about the 'lovely gay girl' who won the competition.

    Ireland in 2024 is populated by people who don't see RTE as an instrument of change.If it ever was that. Like almost every other Western country's MSM they have lost out to streaming, you tube and podcasts. It is an anachronism that can't justify itself anymore. It's D4 mindset needs to be lanced like a boil and replaced by existing regional content and online content creators.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,755 ✭✭✭saabsaab


    It was once an instrument of Social change. Maybe you don't remember the 60s and 70s like I do. I agree that the young don't watch RTE anymore and it's outdated..

    Many of the current presenters are my age and older (some are very good btw) but needs some new blood..



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