Noel Kelly claims RTE had guaranteed underwriting 'for duration of the contract'

Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly have finished their opening statements in front of the Public Accounts Committee of the Oireachtas and a series of questions have been asked by members of the Public Accounts Committee.

Both Kelly and Tubridy made major claims in their opening statement, with Kelly directly contradicting the narrative RTÉ executives had told Oireachtas over the past two weeks. Indeed a new thread has been established, with repeated claims by Noel Kelly that he – and by extension Ryan Tubridy – were "at all times... acting under instruction from RTÉ" in relation to the way in which payments were to be dealt with.

Kelly's opening statement, which can be found in full here, states, "Since this controversy began, RTÉ has tried to distance themselves from this decision. Effectively they have blamed former Director General Dee Forbes for doing a solo run and for giving a verbal commitment to underwrite the contract on a Zoom Call in May.

"On the last paragraph on that page Ms. O’Keeffe – on behalf of RTÉ - states explicitly that 'we can provide you with a side letter to underwrite this fee for the duration of the contract'.

"Her email also casts a new light on the contribution of Adrian Lynch, Deputy Director General at the Committee. Mr. Lynch told the Committee that agreement to underwrite the contract was given verbally on a Zoom call with NK Management on the 7th of May by the then Director General. He described that as 'the significant point at the centre of this'.

Kelly says he wrote to RTE in June this year highlighting the significance of the O'Keeffe email.

He says RTE took the decision early to guarantee the contract with Renault.

"RTE oversaw every development and implementation of (the contract)" pic.twitter.com/AYILDL5jvy

— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) July 11, 2023

Kelly told the committee he was "simply acting on instructions from RTÉ," that "it instructs us not to put any person’s name on it. That email also gave us a general assurance from a colleague of Ms. O’Leary’s that 'if he' (meaning NK Management) 'sends it back to me I will then sort everything else out'.”

In response to a question from Chair Brain Stanley on the optics of securing a €75 thousand payment during a time of pandemic cuts, Tubridy said “I say to Noel - I say, you do your job and I’ll do mine.”

Tubridy's opening statement is available in full here.

Follow the hearing live on Oireachtas TV here.