Over a five-year span, RTÉ executives reportedly used corporate credit cards for payments exceeding €175,000, comprising roughly €56,000 on events, bars, restaurants, and hotels. The released records under the Freedom of Information Act indicated that favoured venues for these executives included Dublin’s Suesey Street, Spitalfields gastropub, Osteria Lucio, the Dean Street Townhouse in Soho, London, Madigan’s pub on Leeson Street in Dublin, as well as renowned Dublin dining establishments like St Stephen’s Green’s Peploe’s and Dublin 2’s Trocadero.
South Dublin established a strong presence with its pubs, restaurants, and hotels which included Café En Seine, the 37 Dawson Street, the Ivy, and the Shelbourne Hotel. The documents also showed that RTÉ’s ex-director general, Dee Forbes, incurred €14,890 on her credit card, €5,900 of which estimated on hospitality and hotels alongside over €1,200 on flowers.
Geraldine O’Leary, RTÉ’s previous commercial director who had an early retirement following the public furore around Ryan Tubridy’s payments, registered the highest credit card expense overall, totaling €74,322 over a four-year span, with an estimated €36,800 spent on hotels and hospitality. O’Leary also reported €871 on flower expenses and €705 on gifts for babies.
The records further noted instances where visits to the Aviva Stadium were sandwiched by bar and restaurant bills. In February 2023, Ms O’Leary’s expenses amounted to €313 at the Trocadero and the Aviva Stadium, rounded off by a €209 pizzeria bill. Similarly, in March of that year, prior to a stadium visit, there were bills from the Cinnamon Restaurant in Ballsbridge and 37 Dawson Street.
O’Leary maintained that each year client entertainment budgets were decided and approved beforehand and their expenditure complied with the established guidelines and got management approval. She stated that these amounts aligned with her responsibilities as the commercial director where entertaining stakeholders is a common practice, and should be seen within the framework of annual earnings amounting to roughly €150 million.
Jon Williams, ex-news chief, incurred €48,500 worth of expenses on his credit card, allocating significant funds towards foreign trips inclusive of air travel, accommodation, and vehicle rental. Mr Williams asserted that these expenses were incurred in accordance with RTÉ regulations and were appropriate for his position.
RTÉ clarified that the expenses in question had secured the requisite approvals in accordance with the prevailing procedures supervised by Ms Forbes for individuals who reported to her, or the erstwhile chief financial officer as applicable to the director general’s expenses.
Recent changes have been put in place by Director General Kevin Bakhurst. These underline the need for meticulous management of expenses across the board and stipulate that only expenditures relating to business-necessary items or occasions can be authorised. Consequently, gift purchases such as flowers and the like cannot be listed as expenses anymore.
Much of the spending was allocated to business expenses, including subscription of newspapers and procurement of software packages.
The recorded data encompasses expenses incurred by the mentioned executives, alongside Jim Jennings, RTÉ’s content head; Adrian Lynch, the deputy director general of the broadcasting organisation; its previous strategy head Rory Coveney; and Paula Mullooly, its former legal head.
On being reached out for comments on Friday, no responses were forthcoming from Ms Forbes, Ms Mullooly, and Mr. Coveney.