RTÉ

[dahamsta]

Surprised there isn't a thread about this already. I had to check r/ireland yesterday out of curiousity despite not using Reddit any more, and they seem fairly universally p*ssed at Tubbs, which seems a bit naive to me (but then it is r/ireland). Do ye think anything will come of it all? Anything at all? I suspect not.

(I didn't want to be too specific in the title, since there's so much to discuss about RTÉ at the mo!)

[John83]

I've stopped following it carefully, as there's a torrent of ****e at the moment and I have better things to do. Marty Morrissey's car, for example, is a minor thing acting to screen the bigger picture. The thing that caught my eye was the board claiming that spending was hidden from them. That, if true, should be something that will result in one or more criminal prosecutions taken against the management team who were hiding what they were doing from oversight, and those cases should result in punative sentances. I'm not remotely convinced it'll amount to more than a bit of musical chairs and a temporary tightening of the pursestrings at Montrose.

[nigel-harps1954]

I don't think anyone comes out of it looking great. I haven't watched the full meeting back yesterday, but the bits I saw didn't reflect well on any one of RTÉ, Noel Kelly, or Ryan Tubridy. This could rumble on for some time yet.

Tubs repeating 'charity work, kids work, Vincent De Paul' was tiresome for the first 45 minutes I caught of it before I'd to nip out. He's not entirely to blame for anything, but standing up in front of the nation and lauding his 20% pay-cut as one of the people, despite, as it turns out, knowing he wasn't really being cut at all, grates a little with me.

I'll have to watch the rest of it back, or at least the highlights, but firmly in the corner that everyone is made to look an idiot out of this.

[pineapple stu]

I think the worst Tubridy has done is be a bit cocksure in his own importance. In the greater scheme of things, that's not the worst of things. He's hired an agent to look after his contract work for him; it's Kelly who should be getting most of the stick here I think. Well, plus RTÉ for buying into the Renault idea.

Interesting bit from yesterday was O'Keeffe - the former Finance Director who'd been one of the best and most believable speakers last week - being hung out to dry by Tubridy/Kelly. She'd claimed she had no input into any sort of deal with Tubridy and that it had all started after she left, but then Tubridy/Kelly produced an email from her which showed otherwise.

Kelly being likened to the Nazis in the PAC wasn't a good look (told him to stop invoking the Nuremburg defence, after passing the buck on his invoicing by saying "We were only following RTÉ orders" once too often)

Seems it came out too that Tubridy doesn't really have a Plan B - but RTÉ tend to say they pay top drawer to their presenters to stop them moving abroad.

I'm always a bit sceptical about these sort of hearings, but I suppose there's been changes in the FAI since Delaney appeared at his one, so you never know. RTÉ have actually been producing some really good local stuff lately (John Creedon's travelogues around Ireland, stuff like The Liffey, Great Lighthouses of Ireland, and so on - plus they showed the Rovers - Breidablik game last night ) so there's potential there even as the world increasingly limits its watching to whatever's dropped on Netflix, which has to be a big issue for them.

But yeah, seems a complete mess (and yet are the BBC managing to outdo them at the moment?!)

(Been mostly following it through the boards.ie thread and trying to figure out who the reliable posters are, which is a tricky task so happy to be corrected in the above!)

[the 12 th man]

Makes Tubs & Murray like they manouvered it so the greedy little stick insect (and agent) suffered no loss (despite their denial of same),so much of the accusations made by the dynamic duo about what RTE did with invoicing through another company etc make no sense from RTE's point of view as Tubs was ultimately the benificiary when the music stopped.

Follow the money.

BTW,can nobody pronounce Renault at this thing?

[dahamsta]

Ren-alt. Maybe it's a gender thing.

[the 12 th man]

Hot on the heels of his Christy Dignam apology Dave Fanning has had to go again after criticising the Tribunal as “a nonsensical Oireachtas Nuremberg trial”.

The apology was issued quickly after his new boss Mr Bakhurst said the comments were inappropriate...

He tweeted: “I want to apologise unreservedly to the Oireachtas Committee for my ill-judged comment regarding this week’s hearings.

“There was no intention to trivialise the proceedings,” he added.

[seanfhear]

The Irish elites are out of control as they always are ~ ~ Always looking out for one another.

[CraftyToePoke]

I see Tubs invoiced as usual, the balls on him, you have to grudgingly admire the cojones on that act, if not the person. Of course you must then consider he knew nothing of the invoice going in either, right ?

[John83]

Either he's contractually entitled to that money or he's not. Your employer doesn't get to back out of paying you because it's embarrassing to them how badly they negotiated it. This is not to say he's above reproach, but RTE are playing stupid games there.

[dahamsta]

Yes, but there's nothing stopping him from giving it back. He knew exactly what he was doing when he offered to do so, but couched it with "if they ask for it back"; he knew the position that would put them in. It was obnoxious. If he'd any sense now he'd give them a deadline of a week to come to an arrangement, if not he'd give it to charity. But clearly sense has gone out the window.

Before all this nonsense Tubs was a nothing to me, I neither liked nor disliked him, however he hasn't painted himself in a very good light with his performance. Obviously he was coached by his agent to say what he did, but he's his own person, he has his own mind, he can make his own decisions.

The funniest thing in all of this, for me, was the countenance of his agent. He was clearly very angry, to the point where he had to pause several times to calm himself down, and he's either a very good actor or it was genuine. (He's not a good actor.)

And it was clearly, to me at least, the righteous indignation of the child that got caught. I was skitting watching it.

[the 12 th man]

Tribunal member to Tubridy's agent :"What were you selling when you worked in Cadbury's?"

Agent : "Chocolate"


Beyond parody.

[John83]

Indo is reporting that a report making recommendations to government about replacing the licence fee is being sat on. FoI requests turned down, ****ing off the journos. I suppose they're just going to make it another regressive household tax, but are waiting until after the election.

[seanfhear]

Irish elites looking after one another again as usual.

[Eminence Grise]

I’ll be honest, Seanfhear, that kind of comment annoys me though I’m sure you made it with good intentions. I won’t argue there isn’t a problem with policy and policy makers, but there’s more to the issue than ‘elites’ – a phrase so over-used it’s meaningless. RTE would benefit if politicians stopped pandering to voters and legislated for an efficient collection system – the delay (this debate has been going for a decade or more) means one elite is harming another, not minding it.

Without claiming holier-than-thou virtue, I’ve always paid my TV licence. I do it for the same reason I don’t mug little old ladies or spray Eminence Grise tags on walls, but I do pull yellow ragwort if I see it at my boundary wall, even though there are no cattle in suburban Dublin – it’s the law. Whether you think it’s stupid or not, there’s an obligation to comply.

I like that 7% of the licence fee goes to the independent sector. I wish it was higher, but it’s better than nothing. I’ve several friends who had radio documentaries broadcast on Lyric, Newstalk and Radio Kerry, and colleagues who made TV documentaries and feature films. They couldn’t have done it without funding.

I resent An Post getting 7% for collecting the fee and doing SFA for it (there's your elites minding each other, Seanfhear!). We’ve the highest evasion rate in Europe – roughly €65,000,000 a year (worth 4.5m to the independent sector). I’d welcome the Revenue Commissioners' involvement. I’d argue it wouldn’t be a purely regressive form of taxation: there are exemptions on paying the licence fee for the over seventies and people getting the Household Benefits Package, but the latter have to apply for it. It should be easier under Revenue to ensure that everyone entitled to a free licence gets it automatically.

RTE should be punished for squandering our money. Those who want to stop paying their licence as a protest should – once they consider the possible effect on their local radio station, and get rid of their television. They can legally watch RTE or a streaming service with a tablet, home projector and speakers (about the same cost as a good TV). To stop paying the licence but watch football on Sky isn’t a protest: it’s using false outrage to justify being a skinflint.

Forcing change might be a better punishment – more transparency, new presenters, not recycling the same ones, innovating on content. Personally I’d merge RnaG with TG4; I’d make RTE2 and 2FM commercial stations funded by advertising, the RTE Guide, and whatever they get from the open 7% of the licence fee; and I’d ringfence licence fee money for RTE1, Radio1, Lyric and the RTE Concert Orchestra with strict rules on programming – sport, documentary, home-produced drama, music and entertainment. Property porn, Rochel Olon’s cooking, fat-shaming masquerading as health education or Dancing/Singing/Knitting or Sheep-shearing with the Stars: go to RTE2.

And if it were possible, I’d sell Montrose to relocate RTE to a BBC-type Broadcasting House on O’Connell St where the Carlton, Royal Dublin and the old Co Co office site extends to Moore St. If there isn’t room for all of Montrose, expand some regional offices.

[dahamsta]

I cancelled my licence DD. I'll restart at some point, although I'd prefer not to because it's a stupid form of taxation - but their actions were a disgrace and attention needs to be redrawn to the seriousness of it. White-collar "misbehaviour" has become increasingly glossed over and "that-was-in-the-past-ed", and I'm sick of it. Any other form of protest is futile.

> I resent An Post getting 7% for collecting the fee and doing SFA for it

7% is too high, but they don't do SFA for it, and you know it.

> We’ve the highest evasion rate in Europe

Out of how many countries? Just 12 according to this table Wikipedia, most countries have abolished them. And rightly so.

[the 12 th man]

This refusal rate will be a Tsunami by year's end leaving them no choice but abolishing the way they charge it now,in the meantime we'll pick up the slack indirectly through a paw out to the Government to fill the gap.