JUST supposing you were wakened around 1am and when you peeped out the window you saw a group of youths dancing on the roof of your car. And supposing next day one of the group arrived at your front door and told you he was sorry about that, he’d jumped on your car the previous night. My guess is, among other things, you’d demand from him: “What about the four other yahoos that were with you? Where are they?”
With that little parable in mind, let’s go back, if you can bear it, to the Ryan Tubridy case. To put it very briefly, Tubridy was found to be receiving €345,000 more than his published salary. Thanks to the Oireachtas hearings, we now know what The Talent is: They’re the people like Tubridy who receive swollen pay cheques from RTÉ. Amid much talk of the ten top earners in RTÉ, one thing has been insisted on: Tubridy’s was the only case where extra money was being slipped under the counter.
Now let’s go back, if you can bear it, to the Oireachtas hearings last week. Lots of RTÉ’s top business and finance brass were there, but the seat that should have been filled by Dee Forbes, the director-general of RTÉ, was conspicuously empty. And the top brass who were there insisted Dee Forbes was the only one who knew about the extra money being slipped under the counter to Tubridy.
The Oireachtas people are now intent on calling Ryan Tubridy and Dee Forbes to testify; alas, it doesn’t look likely at the moment. But one thing we are told is definite: Among The Talent, Tubridy alone received extra payments and Forbes alone among the RTÉ background staff knew anything about what was going on regarding the Tubridy payments. One and one only from The Talent, one and one only from the RTÉ background cabal. I don’t know about you, but that strikes me as two scapegoats scampering around the RTÉ campus – two and two only. Tubridy and Forbes – no one else.
The public in general and ordinary RTÉ staff are calling for radical change, which is good. This pig-swill trough into which so many noses were thrust – oh no, sorry, I forgot – into which Ryan Tubridy and Ryan Tubridy's nose alone was thrust – is in grave need of overhaul. Fundamental overhaul.
But just about everyone is forgetting to ask one fundamental question: What is RTÉ for? So let me tell you. RTÉ exists in order to produce good-quality programmes, whether that’s in news, current affairs, documentaries or (Tubridy’s strength) light entertainment. That above all is what the public want from the national broadcaster. If that’s not kept firmly in mind, overhaul of RTÉ will be like the overhaul of a car where every part of the vehicle is checked and given a high polish – all except the engine, which is ignored.
And I don’t think I’m being provincial when I say that news and current affairs have a long way to go, in quantity and quality, in their reporting of Northern affairs. RTÉ is the national broadcaster. Those of us North of the border are Irish too.
Will the root and branch change happen? I don’t know. But if it doesn’t, all the checks and balances, all the scrutiny and management of money, will be in vain. In the end, what comes up on our screens is what matters. An example? Well, we could discuss that for the next six months, but I’d start with one question: Why the hell last Saturday was RTÉ unable to provide coverage of a key Championship game, Kerry vs Tyrone? Yes I know Tyrone lost, but like thousands of others I’d still like to have seen it.
