'How much are you paid as Chief Finance Officer? - Deputy John Brady - speech from 29 Jun 2023

in the opening statement from the the

chair of DRT board this the rally estate

that it appears to you that this was an

act designed to deceive and I think that

is that the core Point can I ask is is

that view uh shared by the entire entire

board

it is and is that view shared by the

executive

well certainly in the evidence I've seen

yes payments were concealed to our

integrity yes so that view is is sure by

the Executive also

um and I suppose that the crooks over

there here is

um who set out to uh deceive whether it

was an individual as some would like to

portray or whether it was a a number of

people that came together to deceive and

I'm not sure we'll get to the bottom of

that here at this meeting but I think

that is that the Crux of the question uh

to go back to a point um that was raised

early on just in terms of the Director

of Finance and he was asked as to when

he was first approached by uh Delight

um the seventh of March and Horizon and

saying that

um at that stage and they express

concern about two of the invoices to the

payment 75

000 each on correct and saying that

um and you approached at the deforbs at

that point

um and you set out

um a narrative

um in which uh deforbs um stated that

these consultancy invoices uh were for

NK itself and they related to how RTE uh

structured we structured itself for

adjourn covert I'm writing saying that

broadly yeah no I can't remember the

exact detail but broadly that's what it

was was that in in writing or was that

verbally and I communicated with

deloitte's pretty much immediately

afterwards okay okay and at that point

you already expressed that um you didn't

have any concerns around

um Noel Kelly given this type of of

consultancy uh work um of that nature

you that didn't set off any alarm builds

or raise any flags of concern within

yourself for yourself

well

I mean it

at that stage the expenditure had been

committed so I was relaying back what

happened at that stage this was I was

the purpose of speaking to the director

General is to find out what the

background was to this

um the payments were to a company

controlled by no okay so you know it was

obviously it's your role as as Chief

Owen that's officer and if you don't

mind

for the wreck I am how much are you paid

as as Chief finance officer

I think that's a private matter you know

I think we're going to disclose our

we're going to disclose or anything

we've been asking sorry just want to

intervene here for a minute

the chair of the board said that all of

those figures will be published

and given the fact that you're you know

that you're in the you're working for a

public organization I would expect to

hear that answer here today Deputy has

asked you how much is your salary

a picture that I would expect you to

answer that question

I don't know what my exact salary is off

the top of my head but I can give you I

know I can give you exactly

Chief Financial Officer of RT can tell

us what he's supposed to buy that Chief

Financial Officer just

Chief Financial Officer being asked the

question why does everybody who has the

floor everybody has the floor

well let's just watch your salary

this is a extraordinary

over a minute now to get a very basic

answer I I I would have imagined

we have public parties in here every

week who you know senior staff we we can

get the uh figures for salaries you know

any problem RT is you know transparency

no problem being transparent transparent

and Trust yeah you know yeah it's a very

basic question and I expect the answer

to it for the members okay I believe my

salary is around 200 000 base salary

plus a car Alliance of 25 000.

um but it's in and around that sort of

okay so 200 000 plus

okay um thank you for that one luckilies

after

that's noted as well so

um you're paid an extraordinary amount

of money so essentially what you became

uh was a message for you for at the

Forbes the director General as opposed

to doing your specific role you took a

message directly from the director

General didn't question it and brought

that back uh to uh is that what you're

well I was asked to get an explanation

what more could I have done at that

stage I was asked to get an explanation

of what

a more detailed explanation of what it's

a natural role to discover on truths and

you know uh

proper answers truthful answers

um yeah in relation to all financial

matters I think if the issue had come on

my radar earlier absolutely yes okay

that's when it came on my radar and

Deloitte were looking for an answer

quickly on that okay so just in relation

to that meeting on on on the 7th of

March you went back to Deloitte the

light then went to the director General

at that point

your understanding and they were unhappy

with the uh response that was uh given

at that point yesterday I I think Adrian

Lynch stated that when he was asked a

specific question in relation to Ryan

tuberty and his announcement on the 16th

of March that he was stepping down from

his role

um in uh presenting The Late Late Show

and you said there was absolutely no way

he would have known that this was going

on in the background when that decision

was at taken do you stand over that

those comments no I actually don't

happen yesterday because

um just to give context and because I

knew it would come up so what I'd

actually done was I had I was trying to

work out the day the director of content

told me that Ryan told really had come

into his office to tell him that he was

stepping down so I went back and checked

my email because I had sent him an email

with a list of potential presenters and

that was on

um I think it was March 13th so I in my

mind I didn't realize that actually the

CFO had had contact from the orders and

whatever was March the 10th or whatever

so just to clarify that okay so Ryan

tubbardy could well have been

um informed by somebody that this

process

um or these concerns had been raised

yeah based on the information from

yesterday it's possible okay can I ask

Mr Collins did you have any

conversations with

um Noel Kelly or Mr tuberty in relation

to this process is anyone aware of any

conversations or discussions that the

director General may have had with the

agent represented Mr tuberty or Mr

tobrium so the only conversations I was

aware of was between the director of

content and Ryan interpreting okay so

would be reasonable to say that

um this process the uncovering of these

payments could well of influence Ryan

tuberty's decision to step down from his

his role as present in the and I'd say

it's possible if you look at the

information yeah okay just in in in in

relation to

um

the um the tripartite agreement the deal

and the payment so I want to focus on on

year one

um and we we know that Miss O'Leary

you've already stated that you

negotiated and that you were you were

responsible for that part

um yes I was asked to represent that

proposal to Renault in early twenty in

March 2020 yes okay okay

um and in in in in in relation to uh the

credit note

um that that was

um issued uh by uh Reynold

um

yeah so my initial meeting with the

science was on the line

with Renault sorry it was on the 9th of

March

um the client said he would cons he

would consider it uh he'd run to his

finance department the week afterwards

covert broke out so um obviously it

wasn't a priority for him so by the time

we actually reconnected on it and got to

see how we could work through it it was

July

2020. okay okay and had they saw that

credit note

um they he was very the science was

right here from the beginning that would

have to be cast neutral that he did not

have any incremental money by the time

it came to July

um uh when we were raising the creative

note

um a large part of the value of house

Renault would should have got through

their late

um sponsor patent happened because a key

part of their broadcast sponsorship

which is the three-year contract which I

was referring to earlier includes 20

tickets per week on Hospitality at RTE

okay so that value did not happen from

the 20th of March through to September

because of covert and that and that the

credit note the request for the credit

note then that went to where where did

that go from I sent the request the

credit note to my finance manager from

commercial and the CFO and the CFO okay

so Mr Collins you would have got signed

of of that request at that stage okay

and what was the nature of the request

what was explicitly stated on it um that

the credit note was for

was for

um

a a credit note to to Renault in

relation to the sponsorship now I wasn't

in this tripartite a commercial

agreement I wasn't aware of the the

terms of that I wasn't involved in

negotiating that so you know to be

honest I didn't cop what this was

relating to student cup did you ask

well I didn't ask because I wasn't aware

of the terms of the original

relationship you were asked to sign off

on uh no I wasn't asked to sign off on

it they it was again it was processed

and I was I was copied on an email then

copied on an email so yeah so I was

aware that I sleep at the whale no I

wasn't I was aware well it appears you

were asleep on several phones the

director General was involved in this I

took comfort from a control point of

view that the director General was

looking at this now at the time you've

got to remember at the time I was

dealing with a number of major issues in

the organization it was the start of

covet or early on in covert it looked

like RTE could run out of cash we had an

accounting system implementation that

was not going well and could have caused

major problems for the business we had

two big tax audits were under pressure

just a very final point just a very

final point so

um it is very clear then that from year

one of the contract not when we're told

it was only year two on trade that the

guarantee kicked in year one RT were

actually paying the 75 000 so RTA where

we're propping up so essentially the

guarantee was there from from Year One

country to what has been stated by by

Miss O'Leary that she wasn't aware of

any guarantee to underpin

I'm aware that it was underwritten

because I I didn't have sight of the of

Ryan Toby's contract thank you moving on

I'm going to spend the meeting for five

minutes uh and return them