I, as Interim Deputy Director-General, concede that, as an Executive, we failed in our collective responsibility regarding the events leading to the misstatement of payments to Ryan Tubridy. I wish to state again our deep regret regarding what has emerged in recent days. For this serious breach of trust with the public, we apologise.
It is a fact that the application of governance procedures at executive board level allowed for the partial and incomplete sharing of information, so that individual members of the executive either did not have access to information, or had information withheld from them.
It is true that the Executive Board failed in its responsibility to act as a collective, and failed to ensure good governance in this matter. Collectively, owing to the siloed style of procedures at Executive, and an overreliance on the prerogative asserted by the Director-General, we did not receive a comprehensive evaluation of Ryan Tubridy’s contract in full, including the way in which the payments were treated. We acknowledge and accept this failure by those members of the Executive who were aware of the contract.
I have spoken to Kevin Bakhurst last night. I understand that his first task will be a reconstitution of the Executive Board of RTÉ.